When crude oil prices in 2008 peaked at around $140 a barrel, then-Continental Airlines president Jeff Smisek said oil and gas clients were "living large and flying all around the world up front and spending money like drunken sailors." The global financial recession shortly thereafter hit prices hard, but oil rebounded to more than $100 a barrel by 2011. Prices now are falling down a well again and the message from the sector isn't very rosy.

It's the oil companies' turn to tighten their belts. Some are bracing for reduced discretionary spending this year, including some corporate . . .

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