Looks like you didn't listen well at your micro economics...

Looks like you didn't listen well at your micro economics classes at school or uni. Having low oil prices for mad, when it's buying an oil field is a disaster, because the profit margin at $100 is going to be a lot more than at $60. The number of fields at $100 that would meet mads criteria, would be way more than at $60. There is less and less targets that would satisfy mads strict irr's. An irr that is really high because of a very high cost base, because of the management team assembled. There's less of a chance mad buying an oilfield now, than when prices where higher, and fields where more profitable. Forget about asset prices, it's income that's going to effect whether mad buys something or not.