If Exxon Mobil didn’t exist, would you invent it? China may be in the “yes” camp—which is a curiously retro position in today’s oil industry. Beijing is considering mergers for its state-controlled oil giants, such as China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. PetroChina, CNPC’s listed arm, alone is worth north of $300 billion. Energy bankers will no doubt turn misty-eyed at the prospect of a late-1990s-style round of megamergers, exemplified by Exxon’s takeover of Mobil. But the world has moved on. While investors have sought refuge in Big Oil stocks amid the recent slump in prices, Small Oil has been much more in favor in recent years. Marathon Oil and ConocoPhillips split into separate upstream and downstream firms in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The resulting […]