Oil majors reverse decade of stalled growth to beat supply crunch fears

Filled oil drums are seen at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s lubricants blending plant in the town of Torzhok, north-west of Tver, November 7, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo

Oil majors have long been passive watchers of the pump war between OPEC and U.S. shale producers, but not any more.

Majors were unable to grow output for the past decade even as oil prices soared above $100 per barrel due bad capital discipline and huge project delays.

The oil price slump since 2014 has prompted the world’s biggest oil firms to drastically cut costs but also to force contractors to make projects more efficient and extract the same amount of barrels for fewer dollars.