Low electricity prices have reduced demand.The onshore work is peripheral for EOG now, though the cash it generates will come in handy as it pumps money into development work in the North Sea. It owns 5 per cent of Buzzard in a joint venture which includes BG Group and EnCana, a Canadian oil giant, and has started exploring close to the Buzzard site, too.After a rights issue and the disposal of some non-core businesses, EOG is sitting on £4.5m, which is likely to cover its share of the development costs before the banks will be willing to finance Buzzard. JUST AS everyone thought the jam tomorrow story that has always been the aero engines group Rolls-Royce, was actually about to start delivering the jam, along came 11 September and investors reasonably took the view that it was jam delayed yet again. As it turns out, the 11 September effect has not been nearly as bad for Rolls-Royce as it might have been. Sales of engines are down by nearly a third, but the order book is still growing, aftermarket demand for spare parts and services remains strong and net debt is falling. Overall sales are down, even taking account of the joint venture services businesses, and so are profits.

The company would like you to focus on what it calls “underlying” profits, which aren’t too far adrift of last year, but taking the old fashioned idea that performance should be judged on the basis of profits before tax, the numbers have plummeted from £137m to £33m.Never the less, John Rose, the chief executive, has good reason to congratulate himself. Over the last decade, Rolls-Royce has transformed its position from a poor third in the aero engines market into a vibrant number two, snapping at the heals of the market leader, General Electric. What’s more, the business strategy of building the installed base of Rolls-Royce engines to a level where it produces a substantial annuity in aftermarket sales of spares and services is plainly beginning to work. Aftermarket sales were 41 per cent of the total in the half year, helping to protect the company from the downturn in new engine sales.Worries remain. The pension fund deficit at £700m is alarmingly high, and if nothing changes, Rolls may be forced to top up the fund to the tune of £35m a year in each of the next three years. Nor has Rolls managed entirely to quash the accounting concerns that have swirled around the company post the collapse of Enron. Questions remain about the way the company accounts for its risk and revenue sharing partnerships to fund new engine development.

There is also some £700m of debt that sits off balance sheet in the group’s various joint venture service companies. All of it is non recourse to parent, but that doesn’t stop the whispering.Even so, the company looks financially safe enough, its market position is secure, and the strategy seems sound. Investors can be confident the jam really is about to arrive. The wait will have been worth it.Shell/Phil Watts Phil Watts, executive chairman of Shell, must have read last month’s bizarre, three-part hagiography in the Financial Times on Lord Browne, his opposite number at BP, with irritation and not a little envy. While the rest of us were reaching for the sick bag, Mr Watts must have been thinking, “Why not me? Lord Watts of Leicester, the Shell king, the man behind one of the world’s greatest corporations, one of Britain’s most admired business leaders, a miracle worker, a charmer, a schmoozer, a networker, a fixer, hugely liked by all and just an all round bloody genius and demi-god”.No such luck The contrast could hardly look greater. While the City just loves Lord Browne, many investors and analysts say they are already disillusioned with Mr Watts. He’s only been at the job 12 months, but he already seems to have got up everyone’s noses.

He’s being described by some big investors in the City as “brusque, a poor communicator, and generally defensive when dealing with critical questions”. Those delicate flowers that call themselves fund managers apparently don’t like his direct, no nonsense approach to meetings, and although they are not yet calling for his head, they want him to reform his style.Chief executives are these days expected to be super heroes. It’s taken as read that they’ve got to be brilliant operational managers. But they are also meant to be inspired strategists, cheerleaders, team builders, party animals, media savvy talkers and politically wise activists.