The two U.S. oil supermajors—ExxonMobil and Chevron—have gone through a rough patch over the past three years with the oil price crash that battered company earnings and energy stocks and indexes. Despite expectations that the relatively steady increase in the price of oil from Q4 2017 onwards would help integrated oil groups to lift their earnings, the two U.S. majors reported 2017 financials that analysts described as underwhelming, especially compared to the profit and cash flow growth of their European peers. The two U.S. firms differed not only from the other majors—they also differ in how they weathered the headwinds of the oil price slump and how they plan to grow from this point forward. Exxon cushioned the blow with a stronger and broader downstream business, which typically saves the integrated oil groups when the upstream division suffers from the low oil prices. This is the reason why Exxon […]