The last Thursday of July has turned into the Grand National of the FTSE 100 results.

There is an obligation on companies to get their results out as quickly as possible but the dumping of so much data on investors in one day has more to do with the way that senior directors run affairs for their convenience – a quick getaway for the yachts in the Med and villas – than the broader interest of other stakeholders.

It is another example of the short-term, selfish thinking that infects the London Stock Exchange. Amid the debris of the July results season several bigger themes emerge.

The first, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon please note, is that the North Sea bonanza and the oil services which go with it is well and truly over although Centrica vows to keep a presence.

With Brent crude trading at $53.48 and the possibility that the market could soon be flooded with Iranian oil, in the wake of the recent Tehran-Washington nuclear deal, energy firms waiting for a recovery in the market might as well whistle in the wind.

The second theme is that Shell and Centrica, coming at it from very different places, recognise this reality and are taking a fresh look at exploration and production.

The loss of some 12,500 jobs across both companies, with a substantial number in Britain, reflects the changes in the oil market. Centrica is aiming to get out of distance production from natural gas in Alberta to oil and gas and Trinidad.

And Shell is slowing its exploration around the world and will be relying on the BG takeover, still in the throes of getting necessary permissions to take it forward.

Source: www.thisismoney.co.uk

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