Europe’s major oil companies are starting to pay their own way. The sector has beaten the market so far this year in the hope that spending cuts and improving operations would mean companies could cover their investment and dividends from operating cash flow. Covering its out-goings should shore up investors’ faith in the sector’s ability to churn out healthy payouts to shareholders, after years where funds were shoveled into grandiose capital projects, depressing returns. Now the sector finally seems to be making progress. Visitors pass the Total corporate pavilion during the 21st World Petroleum Congress in Moscow on June 16. Total will struggle to hit its target of $10 billion in free cash flow for 2015. Bloomberg News Europe’s biggest oil and gas companies—Royal Dutch Shell, BP , Total , Eni and Statoil —generated nearly $32 billion of operating cash flow in the second quarter, notes Morgan Stanley, up […]