Now becoming interesting, page-9

Some good points about the oil price. Sentiment is clearly not with MCE, while the oil price is falling. But the bigger question is in Flemster's post - will the low oil price lead to deferral of new contract awards and margin squeeze ?

I think the answer to both is almost certainly yes. But :

- MCE should be insulated for the next 18 months by existing work;
- the falling dollar should help them win a bigger share of new work, and protect margins to some degree;
- not all their business is new exploration, there is a large maintenance market;
- they are also developing products for new markets;
- arguably, at half net asset value, the deteriorating outlook is in the price;
- the big shareholders, including the founder, will most likely engineer a takeover if things get too grim.