Current oil prices, gas prices, and refining margins are all simply too low for Shell and its peers to sustain the high spending needed to develop oil and gas reserves profitably over the long term. "We are looking at a major demand destruction that we don't even know that will come back. So the oil price may come back. But if the volumes are significantly lower, we still have a major dislocation," said Shell CEO, Ben van Beurden, on the company's first quarter earnings call.