Oil companies are poised to post ‘ugly’ quarterly results even as they cut costs to ride out the price slump.

Major oil companies have been reining in their capital spending and in some cases reducing their stock dividends as the drop on crude prices has crimped their cash flow.

The world’s big oil companies and their investors are bracing for some of the worst quarterly financial results in recent memory as the first three months of the year closed with oil trading at about half of its 2014 peak.