The competition for upstream assets in the Permian is fierce. It’s a different story in the Anadarko, where production has been flat and some larger E&Ps have been exiting. But there’s been a lot of big-money M&A in the Anadarko lately, most for steady-as-she-goes production assets at reasonable prices.
The prospect of procuring steady production assets at reasonable prices has been spurring interest in the Anadarko Basin. In the past few weeks, two privately held producers closed on deals totaling more than $4 billion, with another $1-billion-plus agreement announced this month. What’s going on?
These are challenging times in the oil patch. Crude oil prices continue to sag. E&Ps are trimming their capex, share buybacks, and staff. Some worry that production may be peaking. And yet, upstream M&A activity continues unabated as producers seek to gain scale, expand into new plays — or double down on old ones — and replenish their inventory of top-tier well sites. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss four of the biggest deals announced in the past few weeks.
Activity in Oklahoma’s SCOOP/STACK play has been picking up. In 2021, the number of active rigs there improved by about 30 — that’s a bigger gain than any U.S. hydrocarbon production basin except the Permian. On a percentage basis, the 160% year-over-year increase in the SCOOP/STACK rig count was exceeded — and just barely — by only a couple of other rich-gas regions: the Niobrara and Ohio portion of Marcellus/Utica. Is SCOOP/STACK really on the rebound and, if so, why? The answers are tied to commodity prices and the fact that the Oklahoma play offers producers both crude oil and “rich,” NGL-saturated associated gas. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss recent developments in the Sooner State’s premier production area.
The market dislocations of the past year and a half really took the wind out of the sails of many U.S. hydrocarbon plays. Not the Permian, of course. Sure, production there declined some in the spring of 2020, but has been on the rebound ever since — aside from a brief, Deep Freeze-related downward spike back in February, that is. But the recovery in many other leading production areas was short-lived. Production in the Bakken has stayed close to flat lately, and output in the Eagle Ford has been slipping. The same is true in SCOOP/STACK, which only a few years ago was hailed as maybe the next big thing. What happened? And is there hope for a comeback? In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the once-hot Oklahoma play and its prospects.
Over the past quarter-century, through a combination of greenfield development and acquisitions, Energy Transfer (ET) has built out integrated networks of midstream assets that add value — and generate profits — as they move crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs from the wellhead to end-users. A couple of weeks ago, ET took another big step in its expansion strategy, announcing its plan to buy Enable Midstream in a $7.2 billion, all-equity deal expected to close in mid-2021. The assets to be acquired will augment the synergies ET has already achieved, particularly regarding NGL flows into its Mont Belvieu fractionation and export facilities as well as flows of natural gas through Louisiana’s central gas corridor to LNG and industrial demand on the Gulf Coast. Today, we examine how the Enable Midstream acquisition may help propel ET forward.
Crude oil production in the Permian grew steadily through the 2010s and now tops 4.5 MMb/d — five times what it was at the start of the decade. Production in the Bakken and the Denver-Julesburg (D-J) Basin sagged when crude prices plummeted in 2014-15, but both regions chugged their way back, with output setting new records every month or two in 2018-19. SCOOP and STACK are another story. Only a year or two ago, many producers and others were talking up the neighboring crude-focused plays in central Oklahoma as the next big thing, maybe even a Sooner State Permian. But while SCOOP/STACK production increased through 2018, it’s been flat or falling ever since, and most producers there have been slashing their drilling activity. Today, we look at recent developments in the once-hot region.
Crude oil production growth in Oklahoma over the past two years has been so rapid that apparently the State of Oklahoma “misplaced” (under-reported?) as much as 100 Mb/d of output according to a recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) report. Whatever the true production numbers a couple of central Oklahoma plays continue to attract new drilling and infrastructure investment in the face of the oil price meltdown. Today we describe new infrastructure in the region.
