Any complacency or any lingering ambiguity around coronavirus was swept away yesterday by those most disinterested but informed arbiters — the world’s stock markets.

Shares in BP gushed by more than 4% after the oil giant surprised investors with a slight increase in its dividend, bucking the trend in what has otherwise been a bleak earnings season for big oil.

Greta Thunberg’s speech at the UN’s Climate Action Summit last month stirred a lot of the world’s views about the environment and this is creeping more and more into our everyday lives.

Royal Dutch Shell’s second-quarter profit slumped to a 30-month low on weaker fuel prices and refining margins, denting a steady recovery in recent years and sending the Anglo-Dutch energy company’s shares down over 5%.

It is hard to imagine a less sentimental forum than the London Stock Exchange.

We can overcome with historical unification of mankind

Greenwashed rhetoric is such a staple of the oil industry that it’s easy to assume every energy executive talking about climate and the transition to a zero-carbon economy is just mouthing words.

Royal Dutch Shell reported a small drop in first quarter profit to $5.4bn (€4.8bn), but still easily beat forecasts, helped by stronger trading and liquefied natural gas earnings.

BP has joined its big-oil peers by giving investors a positive surprise, exceeding profit estimates and earning better returns than its closest European rival.

After the near collapse of his company following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster and a three-year slump in oil prices, BP chief executive Bob Dudley is hardly relaxed.

Shell reported underlying earnings more than doubling to $15.8bn (€12.7bn) last year, up from $7.2bn (€5.79bn) in 2017.

Female staff at Royal Dutch Shell earn more than a fifth less than their male colleagues, the oil giant has revealed.

Royal Dutch Shell has reported a large rise in third-quarter profits after the energy giant was boosted by higher oil prices and increased production.

BP is working on an assumption oil prices will average $50 to $55 a barrel next year as global inventories gradually return to normal levels.

From Shell to sea to Shell to go.

Royal Dutch Shell has agreed a deal worth up to US$1.23bn (€1.07bn) to sell its stake in the Corrib gas project in a move ending its exploration and production in Ireland.

The UK’s top share index fell yesterday, depressed by a slide in oil stocks among others. The Ftse 100 index fell 0.6%. A brief recovery was brought to an end in afternoon trading when Bank of England governor Mark Carney said the bank would debate an interest rate increase in the coming months.

The pound lost steam but continued to hover near six-month highs as investors took an optimistic view of Prime Minister Theresa May's plans for a general election in June.

In the widest sense of the word, corruption is the glue that holds the ‘system’ together. The time to fight back has arrived. Soon it will be too late, write Lili Fuhr and Simon Taylor 

Royal Dutch Shell's Nigeria subsidiary "fiercely opposed" environmental testing and is concealing data showing thousands of Nigerians are exposed to health hazards from oil spills, according to a geologist.

BP says it will need a crude price of about $40 a barrel in 2021 to cover spending and dividends, down from $60 this year, as chief executive Bob Dudley seeks to reassure investors on the oil major’s growth outlook and finances.

January has seen a number of large public companies issue profit warnings, something which is set to become commonplace, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

Less than three weeks before the UK votes on its membership in the EU, the country’s equity investors are much less worried about the outcome than their colleagues trading currencies.

The world’s biggest oil companies, set to report their worst quarterly earnings in more than a decade, are finding their cost-cutting efforts haven’t matched the decline in crude prices the past two years.

The Ftse struggled to make headway yesterday as the falling price of crude dragged on stocks after a key meeting of oil producers ended in stalemate.

Global stocks and bond prices fell after a key US jobs report painted a mixed picture of the US labour market and left investors with a muddled view on rate-hike prospects.

Royal Dutch Shell, which is on the brink of completing the oil industry’s largest deal in a decade, said fourth-quarter profit fell 44%, after the rout in crude prices deepened.

For Europe’s biggest oil companies, $60 is the magic number. BP, one of the first companies to predict a prolonged price downturn, has “reset” its business to generate surplus cash flow, with oil at about $60 a barrel by 2017.

Just as big tobacco deliberately misled the public on the cancer-causing effects of smoking, big oil attacked scientists who warned of the impending climate disaster and their attempts now to help ‘solve’ the problem should be shunned by governments, write Kelle Louaillier and Bill McKibben

Royal Dutch Shell is to end exploration in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future.

Royal Dutch Shell will repay a $2bn (€1.7bn) debt to the National Iranian Oil Company when sanctions on Iran are lifted and will consider investing in the country’s vast energy sector, Shell’s boss for new business said.

Britain’s top equity index edged lower yesterday, with a decline for commodities stocks such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell overshadowing gains in travel group TUI.

Royal Dutch Shell expects oil prices to gradually pick up over the next five years, with progress slowed by global oversupply and receding Chinese demand growth.

The London market struggled for direction today as Greece prepares for yet more crunch debt talks with its creditors in the wake of its No vote.

Opponents of Royal Dutch Shell’s use of a Seattle seaport terminal to prepare for exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean have attacked on two fronts.

A Cork stag party in Prague has been labelled a national embarrassment, a priest was jailed for four years yesterday for enlisting the help of members of the Continuity IRA, a young boy has told how he was buried alive for five days after the Nepal earthquake and the build up to the Mayweather V Pacquiao fight continues. These are some of the latest and most read news stories on irishexaminer.com this morning.

Jean Claude Trichet has denied phoning the late Brian Lenihan and instructing him to save the banks, Henry Shefflin selects RTÉ over Sky Sports to launch his GAA punditry career and Cian Healy is spared a conviction despite a judge ruling the tinted windows in his car were ’unsafe’.   These are some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com this evening.

T5 Oil and Gas — the Dublin and London-based exploration firm headed up by former Tullow Oil directors — is expected to take control of loss-making UK explorer Gulf Keystone before the summer.

Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy smaller rival BG Group for £47bn (€65bn) in the first major energy industry merger in more than a decade, closing the gap on market leader ExxonMobil after a plunge in prices.

Refusing to pay Irish Water bills will be pursued through the courts and have the debt removed from payslips, Jan O’Sullivan has said she will not “completely capitulate” on plans for Junior Cert reform, Cork GAA have denied money for the Páirc Uí Chaoimh redevelopment has been withheld and Garth Brooks could be coming back to Ireland. These are some of the latest and most read news on irishexaminer.com.

The pound rose sharply yesterday after new forecasts from the Bank of England appeared to bring forward the likely timing of an interest rate hike.

BP will heap more pain on the UK oil industry when it reveals plans for billions of pounds of spending cuts due to the collapse in oil prices.