BP and Shell are trading with dividend yields above 7%, while Eni, which cut its… It all seemed to be going so well, but European oil groups have stumbled again. After all, oil prices had ridden a strong, sustained recovery and investor faith was growing that these companies really were tackling costs and changing their business models to suit cheaper oil. But now the bumps are back. Second-quarter results were disappointing and the oil price is down about 20% in the past two months. The results showed that even before prices began to slide, investors and analysts had got a little ahead of themselves, particularly with regard to cash flows. That is far away from how the five companies have been performing. Free cash flows actually have been worsening and recent results took cumulative flows for the past four quarters at the big five down to minus $23 billion, […]