Dave Lesar, CEO of oil services giant Halliburton, said that the road to recovery for the energy industry will be abysmal this year. As I said, 2016 is shaping up to be one tough slog through the mud and the industry is going to have to take it a quarter at a time," Lesar went on to invoke the "tough slog" phrase repeatedly throughout the conversation with analysts, painting a pessimistic picture of every corner of the oil business.