JANUARY 22, 2009, 10:24 AM
Consolidation in the oil and gas industries is just around the corner, according to Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst at Oppenheimer.
Oil prices are down more than 70 percent from last summers record high. The longer oil prices stay weak, Mr. Gheit said in a note to investors Thursday, the greater the chances of a major merger party in the energy sector.
The last time energy prices collapsed so violently was in 1998, when a barrel of crude traded for as low as $10. The shift caused many oil companies to leap into the arms of rivals and gave rise to the super major oil companies: ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco,BP Amoco Arco, TotalFinaElf and ConocoPhillips.