Chevron is the fourth largest oil company in the world based on proven reserves, has impeccable financial strength, has been buying back its own shares aggressively of late and pays a generous cash dividend (recently increased by 12%) of $2.60 per share per year—a 3.1% yield based on its current price.

“Two-hundred dollar oil would break the back of the global economy,” Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG (DB), told Bloomberg News in an interview yesterday (Wednesday) in Tokyo. “Next step after $200 would be global recession and bad news for everybody.”