In another guest blog entry, Steven Kopits of Princeton Energy Advisors considers follows up on his previous post, examining whether the IOCs could really be headed to bankruptcy, as economist Philip Verleger suggests in a recent report. Steve can be reached at and his blog can be found at www.prienga.com/blog In my last Barrel post , I threw down the gauntlet to those casually predicting a collapse in oil prices, as such a collapse would effectively kill the oil business at the major oil companies. We will know, I wrote, that such forecasters are serious when they declare the international oil companies (IOCs) “to be the walking dead.” No less than Phil Verleger, noted macro oil analyst, immediately took up the challenge. In his weekly note (April 21st), Phil notes that “long run fundamentals may indicate bankruptcy for large oil companies.” He writes: “In the long run…companies betting […]