Despite the nearly 40-percent oil price slide in the fourth quarter, supermajors booked solid sets of Q4 and 2018 results, suggesting that they have learned to raise profits even when oil prices are well below $100 a barrel and may never return to the triple-digit mark. Three of Big Oil’s five—Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron—reported strong figures last week, with many key metrics beating analyst forecasts and some earnings at their highest levels since 2014—the last time the price of oil was above $100 a barrel. Exxon’s earnings in the last quarter of 2018 easily beat analyst expectations , signaling that the Q4 oil price drop didn’t erode Big Oil’s profits as much as the market had feared. Exxon booked Q4 earnings of US$6 billion, down from US$8.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017. Yet, earnings per share assuming dilution came in at US$1.41, nearly a third above the […]