London — From Exxon Mobil to Total, the world’s largest listed oil companies have sent a message to sceptical investors and rivals at the Opec cartel: we can get by in a world of $50 a barrel crude. Big Oil generated a gusher of cash in the first quarter. The surge shows how a mix of cost-cutting and assets sales — plus the tailwind of new output from projects approved several years ago — helped companies to survive and then thrive with prices that are less than half what they were a few years ago. "Oil majors have adapted to the low-price environment," said Olivier Jakob, head of oil consultant Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland. Exxon, Total, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron reported combined first-quarter free cash flow — money they can use to pay dividends — of $11.4bn, compared with a shortfall of $14bn a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts their performance in the period on a par with what they often delivered between 2010 and 2014, when oil traded a...
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