There has been no 11-figure upstream M&A since Devon Energy and Coterra Energy announced their $21.4 billion merger in early February, just a few weeks before the war on Iran started and the Strait of Hormuz was closed. But other, somewhat smaller — but still noteworthy — deals continue to happen.
The Haynesville is the nation’s #3 natural gas producer, and close to most of the U.S.’s LNG export capacity. That makes gas pipelines from the Haynesville to the Gulf Coast critically important — and valuable — assets, a reality Williams Cos. just affirmed with its plan to buy Momentum Midstream.
It’s unusual for an acquisition valued at “only” $1.25 billion to be transformational. But that’s surely the case with Expand Energy’s newly announced purchase of Twin Eagle Holdings, which will make Expand — the U.S.’s largest natural gas producer — the #1 gas marketing and optimization firm as well.
M&A activity in the oil and gas minerals/royalty space had quieted during a prolonged wave of major E&P consolidation. As that activity winds down, rising realizations for both oil and gas have spurred a major consolidation among royalty trusts as well as a recent successful initial public offering.
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.
With their scale and 130-gigawatt pipeline of new large-load customers, the planned combination of electric utility and wholesale power giants NextEra Energy and Dominion may substantially accelerate the buildout of new gas-fired power plants and, with that, the need for more pipeline capacity.
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?
Shell’s plan to acquire Western Canadian E&P ARC Resources Ltd. affirms the global energy giant’s new strategic focus, enhances the prospects for Phase 2 of LNG Canada, and supports the view that the Montney Shale may be replacing the Permian as the epicenter of oil and gas M&A.
It’s been a busy few years for big-money M&A in the oil and gas industry. Now, having acquired their targeted assets — often running up debt in the process — several E&Ps have been selling off non-core holdings and, with those deals, zeroing in on the shale basins they see as the keys to their success.
For E&Ps, differences in financial performance often stem from accounting methodology, specifically from whether a company uses the Full Cost (FC) or Successful Efforts (SE) method to account for its oil and gas properties. Today, we examine why this seemingly mundane topic really matters.
