Western oil industry fails to invest in future

Articles prophesising the outlook for 2007 have covered a multitude of topics. Interestingly, almost every one of them has focused upon the relative valuation of the largest 20 companies in the stock market versus the average for the remaining 330 in the FTSE 350 index. There can be no disputing the raw data. We all have to accept that BP, for example, on a forward price earnings (P/E) ratio of some 10x is much lower than the 16.3x average for the FTSE 350. This difference between BP and the market average is the lowest it has been for 25 years. This is the third year in a row that all ...