The first two quarters of the current year have been brutal to U.S. oil and gas companies. According to Refintiv data , the energy sector has recorded the lowest Q2 2020 earnings growth rate (-168.5 percent) of any U.S. sector with earnings clocking in at -$10.5B vs. $15.3B in the year-ago comparable quarter. That’s far worse than the S&P 500 average earnings growth rate of -19.1 percent when you exclude the energy sector. As expected, oilfield service companies operating in the Shale Patch have been faring worse than most thanks to huge capex cuts by producers. But U.S. shale producers can take some comfort in the fact that their counterparts elsewhere have not been doing much better. Saudi and Chinese oil and gas giants have been booking massive losses, too, proving that Covid-19 is a pandemic of equal opportunity. In the first half of 2020, Saudi oil revenue plummeted […]