Prospect of bumper profits lifts the oil giants

It is arguably the biggest week for results of the year so far and the market spent most of yesterday placing bets on who the winners and losers are likely to be. And it doesn't take a post-graduate finance degree to work out that Royal Dutch Shell is likely to be a big winner.

All the oil majors are likely to report bumper profits this year, with demand for oil and oil-related products showing no sign of abating, just as the price of oil shows no sign of a meaningful fall. For most of the last quarter, oil has traded close to $70 a barrel - not a bad price when most integrated oil majors are geared up to make money even if it trades at $10 per barrel.

http://tinyurl.com/dpneg