The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Aug. 30, edition that Big Oil does not seem to be as enamoured with the "big" thing as it once was. A Bloomberg dispatch to The Globe reports that another major project, Alaska LNG, has bitten the dust: The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Imperial Oil parent Exxon Mobil wants to sell its interest to the state government. Piling into a new project expected to cost north of $45-billion (U.S.) is not exactly a sound course of action. However, this is not just about LNG. The major oil companies have been cutting capital expenditure budgets and cancelling or delaying major new projects across the board. Deepwater projects, which are typically big-ticket, complex developments, have been among the hardest hit. Meanwhile, an analysis of Exxon published in April by Tudor, Pickering Holt concluded the company had not "sanctioned any major operated upstream projects of note" for two years. Money's tight, obviously, and shareholders want their dividends. The big question facing Big Oil, says Bloomberg, is whether its most obvious attribute is more of a curse than a blessing.