The world’s oil supermajors wrapped up earnings season leaving investors with more questions than answers.

BP Plc was last to report, missing estimates and suggesting it’ll do more deals in low-carbon energy — despite pledging to dial back renewables investments and focus on the core fossil-fuel business.

Meanwhile, Chevron Corp. is trapped in strategic limbo, with its $53 billion acquisition of Hess Corp. held up in arbitration through the rest of this year, and perhaps longer.

For TotalEnergies SE, there’s uncertainty over its stock listing. The French major is studying a move to New York, where deeper pools of investor cash have already lured European companies from other sectors.

Former Shell Plc boss Ben van Beurden also recently talked up the benefits of a US listing, though such a shift is far from straightforward.

At Exxon Mobil Corp., earnings surprises included high spending on refineries and lower-than-expected US output. A disappointing set of results cast a shadow over surging production from Guyana.

As the Texas giant doubles down on American shale with its $60 billion takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources Co., its ultimate intentions for the Guyana development — at the heart of the Chevron arbitration — are far from clear.

Shell was probably the biggest winner in the quarter, beating profit estimates and committing to share buybacks.

Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan is midway through a 10-quarter “sprint” to improve reliability and cut costs, raising the question of what comes next to improve the company’s valuation compared with US peers.

Big Oil only started to ramp up returns in the past couple of years after almost a decade of underperformance. The firms now need to maintain those rewards to keep fractious shareholders on side.

For Shell and its peers, the pressure is on to get the next phase rolling.

–Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg News