Oil Price Slump Takes Its Toll On Emerging Markets

Friday, February 5, 2016

In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we’ll take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy sector. Each week we’ll dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers.

Let’s take a look.

1. Spending and dividends exceed cash flow

(Click to enlarge)

– BP reported a $6.5 billion net loss for 2015, and announced another 3,000 job cuts. It was the worst result in decades for the British oil giant. – Worrying for the company is the fact that underlying cash flow ($20 billion) does not cover both spending ($19 billion) and dividends ($6.7 billion). – In 2014, BP only covered spending plus shareholder payouts by selling off assets. Since then it has improved cash flow by getting rid of share buybacks. – Still, it has had to take on debt in 2015 to keep the dividends in place. Its debt ratio jumped from 16.7 to 21 percent over the course of 2015.- ConocoPhillips became the first major U.S. oil company to reduce its dividend, when it announced on Feb. 4 that its payout would drop by more than 65 percent. But it may not be the last.

2. Gasoline demand grew briskly in 2015. It recently slowed

(Click to enlarge)

– The two charts above from Reuters show that the collapse in oil prices spurred strong demand for gasoline in the United States as consumers took to the roads.- U.S.…