Big Oil: Burning Cash, Running Out Of Time Quickly – BAML

Europe’s Big Oil sector is set to burn through approximately $20 billion of free cash flow during 2016, and the sector will require almost $10 billion of debt refinancing throughout the year according to a credit research note on the oil industry from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. BoA’s analysts estimate that in the prevailing sub-$60 oil price environment, Big Oil’s organic FCF will remain persistently negative, which gives the industry a “Trilemma” of struggling to achieve its three main through-the-cycle objectives: (1) Maintain dividends, (2) Maintain credit ratings, (3) Maintain resource base. To continue to meet these three primary…