Playing the field: opportunities in the oil and gas industry

A nasty shock has hit the oil and gas industry over the last six months. The price of oil has plummeted from more than $110 (£66) a barrel to around $45 due to a glut of fossil fuels from US shale operations and weakened demand from China and the struggling eurozone economies. In the UK, the result has been dramatic for an industry that was already undertaking much soul searching in the wake of the declining production and rising costs of the North Sea.

The major oil producers including BP, Shell and Chevron have announced a total of nearly 1,500 job cuts in the UK and are slashing their spending worldwide. In the supply chain, manufacturers such as Baker Hughes and Weir Group are also making cuts (so far mostly in other countries), as are service companies such as Schlumberger, which is reducing its fleet of support vessels by more than a third, and Wood Group, which has lowered its contractor pay levels by 10 per cent.