Oh dear. This is looking a bit unfortunate. Last month, when Wood Group swooped on Amec Foster Wheeler, some suggested that the deal looked like a steal, getting Amec at the bottom end of the cycle in a deal that could hardly go wrong, on the assumption that the oil price remained about where it was. The cost savings were obvious, in terms of taking out head office, overlapping management and other overheads.
The oil service industry has been ripe for consolidation. The surprise is that there has not been very much of it. The bigger the company, the better placed it is to survive hard times. Wood has had a good couple of years, in comparison with the rest of the sector, having entered