All eyes on the kings of black gold

This week the oil majors report their earnings for the first half of the year. What impact will there be for the Middle East and especially Abu Dhabi?

The oil 'supermajors' are due to release their second-quarter results this week.

Investors across the world will be keeping a close eye on the energy giants this week.

With Brent crude, the European benchmark, trading above US$100 for the past three months, oil prices are expected to drive earnings when the big players report second-quarter results in the next few days.

This will also be a time of self-examination.

ConocoPhillips, the third-biggest oil company in the US, announced this month it would split its exploration and production operations from its refining arm to form two companies.

The move brings an end to a 15-year stretch of acquisitions and mergers that led to the creation of the supermajors - huge companies whose ranks include ExxonMobil and BP.

The decision by ConocoPhillips raises questions about the future growth of these organisations, which are involved in every stage of oil delivery, from well-boring to lubricant sales in petrol stations.

"Every big oil company will like to review their strategy," says Louis Besland, a vice president at the consultancy AT Kearney. "At a time when there are new sources of energy - like solar, like nuclear - the oil becomes more and more expensive to get [out of the ground]."

The actions of the oil giants will have an impact on the Middle East region - and in particular Abu Dhabi, where four of the world's five biggest energy companies, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Total, hold stakes in enormous concessions.

The emirate was also the site of a withdrawal by ConocoPhillips, which won the rights to develop the Shah sour gas field in 2008 but pulled out last year because of the tough financial terms.

Its replacement, announced this year, was not one of the supermajors but Occidental, a US company that focuses on exploration and production.

That underlines a study by AT Kearney of 50 energy companies showing that the specialised players performed better for shareholders than their larger counterparts.

"The market, rightly or wrongly, favours clear models," says Mr Besland. "They prefer models where you have a clear upstream company, where there's a clear focus."

Against that backdrop, The National looks at the challenges oil companies face in the second half of the year.