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.
The U.S. midstream sector experienced a massive infrastructure buildout in the 2010s, followed by a sharp pullback after 2020, and then a new era of financial discipline and deleveraging. Now, AI-propelled power load growth and a wave of LNG export expansion are pushing midstream capex higher again.
Devon Energy and Coterra Energy’s newly announced merger didn’t come as a huge surprise. They have highly complementary assets in the Permian and the Anadarko and their deal promises $1 billion or more in synergy-related savings. Finally — and this is important — their combination had been urged on by an activist investor.
Given the recent media focus on AI and the surge of data center construction, it comes as no surprise that the electric utility industry’s capital investment has risen to record highs. What isn’t as widely publicized is the enormous strain this historic expansion has placed on utility balance sheets.
There are at least a couple of clear trends in upstream-sector M&A. One is that E&Ps continue to zero in on the basins where they see the most promise, and to divest non-core assets. Another is that the ramp-up in LNG exports is spurring heightened interest in acreage and production targeting that market.
