Oil price has moved higher to almost US$50 per barrel recently. Yet, there is a continuous stream of bad news from Oil & Gas (O&G) companies. We had Linc Energy going to voluntary administration in Apr, Ezra reporting quarterly losses of US$283 million at the same time and Technics Oil & Gas going into judicial management recently. Is the disparity between oil price recovery and bad news from O&G companies just a lagging effect or are there some other factors unaccounted for? If it is solely a lagging effect, the gradual improvement in oil price in recent months should progressively lead to better business conditions for O&G companies and the current wave of bad news could potentially mean the worst of the slump is near. However, if it is some other factors at work, the wave of bad news might not end so quickly and the prices of O&G stocks ......