The industry refers to it as "prospecting for oil on the floor of the stock exchange." Moments like this will cause a lot of oil companies to become financiall

The industry refers to it as "prospecting for oil on the floor of the stock exchange." Moments like this will cause a lot of oil companies to become financially untenable as their market value falls below the long-term value of their assets (land leases, booked reserves, etc). Solvent competitors will buy them up as an alternative to starting new capital-intensive projects of their own.