These are tough times for oil companies. Crude prices have fallen 60 percent since last June, demand remains relatively weak, and the world is still producing more oil than it needs. Not to mention that with crude getting harder to find and costlier to extract, oil companies are spending more money for every barrel they produce—hardly a recipe for steady profits, according to Bloomberg.

Yet ExxonMobil, the largest oil company in the U.S., just reported that it made 6.5 billion dollars in profit during the final three months of 2014. That’s well below the 8.3 billion dollars it made during the same period a year ago, but all things considered, it could’ve been a lot worse. The price of crude averaged 73 dollars a barrel last quarter, compared with 97 dollars a year earlier.

So while Exxon’s profit fell 21 percent, the price of oil was down 25 percent. Exxon’s competitors are having a much harder time making money. Chevron’s profits last quarter were off 30 percent, and ConocoPhillips actually lost money last quarter (the first time that’s happened since 2008).

BP will report its latest earnings tomorrow, but considering the company’s ongoing trouble over the 2010 Deep Horizon spill, it seems unlikely to post a killer quarter. Given BP’s mounting liabilities in the Gulf, and what looks to be a sustained period of low prices, there are even rumblings that the company could be ripe for a takeover later this year. One of its presumed suitors? Exxon, of course.

It’s premature to start talking about a potential BP-Exxon merger, but the current crash in oil prices could usher in an era of megamergers similar to those in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

And it’s all part of a normal business cycle: A decade of high oil prices spurred unprecedented amounts of investment, as oil companies went for growth and market share. Now, as prices fall and demand stalls, the game is to consolidate and buy up rivals. This is when the strong get stronger, and right now, no oil company is in a better position than Exxon.

Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst at Oppenheimer, thinks Exxon is on the prowl and could make a “massive acquisition” at some point before prices go back up. “This is the time to go big,” said Gheit. “And this is the company that can afford to do it.”

Exxon is sitting on nearly 5 billion dollars in cash and equivalents, and while there aren’t many holes in the company’s portfolio, there is room to upgrade. The company could try to expand its footprint in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico or take a bigger position in the liquefied natural gas market. But perhaps the most obvious place is the area that’s driven so much of the change in the global oil sector: U.S. shale.