Oil majors: Drip, drip

Neither Shell nor BP are entirely comfortable with $40 - $50 oil. The British BP says it needs the black stuff to go for around $60 a barrel to keep up capital expenditure and dividends. Anglo-Dutch rival Shell does not disclose a magic number, but it presumably needs a somewhat higher price, since some of its big projects, like extracting oil from tar sands, are more expensive. The two oil majors reported steep drop in profits in the first quarter. Net profit after tax and changes in inventory...