Even though Brent Crude prices hit $75 a barrel on Monday, Shell continues to stick to disciplined spending and wants deepwater projects to break even at $40 a barrel or lower—a sign that Big Oil is committed to not repeating past mistakes with lavish expenditure on complex projects, as the case was when oil prices were above $100 a barrel. Deepwater projects now need their breakevens at $40 or preferably below, Harry Brekelmans, Shell Projects and Technology Director, told Bloomberg in an interview on the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston on Monday. That targeted breakeven is nearly half the deepwater costs for some projects that were commissioned before the oil price crash in 2014, Brekelmans said. “You’ve got to think about that 35-40 range,” Brekelmans told Bloomberg. “It’s something we want to be very disciplined around because it gives you reassurance that going forward, your […]