Big oil found itself issuing statements to a referendum outcome it never saw coming.
Shell (LON: RDSB) made it clear that while it was not happy about the outcome, it would soldier on with the UK government.
BP (LON: BP) labelled the 51% majority decision to leave the European Union (EU) as ‘unhelpful’, but insisted it doesn’t “expect it to have a significant impact on BP’s business or investments in the UK and Continental Europe”.
Colin Welsh, head of international energy investment banking at Simmons & Company International, went on to insist the “fundamentals of energy are intact”.
Sir Ian Wood later issued, for the umpteenth time this year, a call to “remain calm”.
So what the does the Monday after the historic Brexit vote feel like for the industry?
Well, it should feel like Monday, June 27.
It should feel like any other Monday in the past 18 months, where firms have tried to solve the £30billion question: How do we make the North Sea successful at $50 a barrel?
Earlier this year, Energy Voice reported ‘Whatever you do, don’t tell GE’s chairman the oil price’.
The story, which has been shared more than 1,000 times on LinkedIn, quoted Jeff Immelt as saying: “I told [my chief executive] Lorenzo 18 months ago I don’t want to have a phone call with him where he tells me what the price of oil is.
“I know what the price of oil is I don’t need anyone on the GE team to remind me of that. What I need them to do is focus on what they can control.”
In this case, things like driving operating costs below $20 a barrel, avoiding at all costs early decommissioning, and pulling every lever available to the industry to encourage exploration and save other companies from falling over the financial brink.
So I think the sector should give itself 10 minutes this Monday morning to gloat, lament, celebrate or detest the referendum outcome. Got it out of you system? Great, now back to North Sea business.