Look out for clues about the energy industry’s fate in an era of cheaper oil in a glut of earnings reports today. Some oilmen (and their merger advisers) will be sounding surprisingly bouncy. True, the low oil price hits profits and capital expenditure, but it also drives down other prices—of labour, equipment and raw materials—helping companies with strong balance-sheets to buy weaker rivals and make investments cheaply. Shell has just signed an $11 billion deal to build a petrochemicals plant in Iraq. Its size means it can take such risks—and cope with the aftermath when the economics or logistics go wrong, as with its costly, risky Arctic drilling project. Low prices also help refiners’ margins. So companies such as Phillips 66 are happy, too. Today it will trumpet its new refinery expansion and export terminal for products made from ultra-cheap natural gas.