Liam Denning, Columnist

Big Oil's Yuge Problem

The more money it spends, the less oil it produces.

August 29, 2016 at 6:37 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

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Big Oil just doesn't seem to be as enamored with the 'big' thing as it once was.

Another major project, Alaska LNG, has bitten the dust: The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Exxon Mobil wants to sell its stake to the state government. Granted, liquefied natural gas is maxed out on supply right now; only last week, Exxon's own partner in another project spoke of a "revolution" in the market (NB: Big oil companies aren't very fond of revolutions). So piling into a new project expected to cost north of $45 billion is not exactly a sound course of action.