International oil companies have frozen projects worth $200 billion

Almaty. July 28. Silkroadnews - large energy companies have postponed spending approximately $200 billion on new projects in the framework of emergency spending cuts, which is aimed at protecting investors' dividends after the second year sharp decline in oil prices, reported Russian media.
According to consultancy agency Wood Mackenzie, a decrease in oil prices since the summer of last year, led to the situation that realization of the 46 major oil and gas projects with reserves of 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent have been postponed.
Among the companies that have postponed the implementation of major projects are BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Statoil and Woodside Petroleum.
"The industry has been declining investment, - says the report of Wood Mackenzie. This is partly due to the fact that it is one of the fastest ways to free up capital in response to the reduction in oil prices".
The report notes that the number of projects which will be fully approved for 2015 can be listed "on the fingers of one hand".
The company Shell, which shocked the energy sector with its generous offer of £55 billion in a deal to buy the company BG Group in April, plans to introduce a more stringent reduction in capital spending for the current year, which, according to the latest estimates, is $33 billion.
France's Total has also introduced plans to reduce spending a few months ago in the same way as and BP.
European oil companies should publish their income for the II quarter, which can be 20% lower compared to revenues for the I quarter of 2015, as the price of Brent crude averaged to $63 per barrel, which is almost 40% lower than the same period last year, say analysts oа Investec.