News Feature: Tracking the impact of recession on oil industry supermajors and timing of sustained recovery

<p align=justify>Ruud Weijermars assesses the impact of the 2008/2009 recession on the oil business by time-series tracking of carefully selected key performance indicators (KPIs) of the six supermajorsprior to - and over - the recession period. What emerges is that business recovery has begun since May 2009 for nearly all supermajors. However, the oil industry’s exceptionally high returns on capital employed of well over 20% seen immediately prior to the recession seem unlikely to recur and are argued to be non-sustainable.