Over the past 16 years, BP has undergone multiple restructurings of its upstream portfolio, interrupted by a shift to — and then from — one of the sector’s most ambitious energy transition strategies. Today, we chronicle the evolution of one of the industry’s most significant integrated companies.
For decades, the major integrated oil companies have been judged by their global scale, diversified business models and shareholder returns. But are their U.S. upstream businesses competitive? Today, we provide answers that may surprise many investors.
Launch a company built around energy market fundamentals and rock & roll song titles. Then … give it away for free. Not exactly a textbook business plan. Today we turn the page. Novi Labs has acquired RBN Energy. Today’s blog is all about the logic of this deal and what it means for our customers.
The rapid expansion of data centers is one of the biggest stories in the energy sector and the Monarch Compute Campus, which will soon start taking shape in West Virginia, could be a compelling test case for future development. Today, we look at the strategy behind it.
The upstream oil and gas sector has been periodically roiled by dramatic price swings triggered by world events over the last five decades. Today, we analyze the impact of bottoming oil prices on earnings and cash flows as the industry girds for an unpredictable 2026.
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.
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.
In the upstream oil and gas world, “reserve life” — calculated via the Reserve Life Index — is one of the simplest and most widely cited metrics. But behind the RLI lies a web of technical, financial and strategic forces that make it surprisingly nuanced measure of an E&P’s long-term outlook.
The record $120 billion upstream M&A spending spree in 2024 focused on the consolidation of Permian Basin positions by the major U.S. publicly traded oil and gas companies. With crude oil prices stagnant in the $70-$80/bbl range, producers were driven to boost Tier 1 acreage and capture operational synergies to fund the generous shareholder returns demanded by their investor base. When the dust cleared at year-end, the larger E&Ps we track — plus supermajor ExxonMobil — closed or announced deals on acreage that generated about 1.5 MMboe/d of production, almost 25% of their 2023 Permian output. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll analyze what this unprecedented consolidation means for Permian production going forward.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times last year, brightening the prospects for continued economic growth and increases in energy demand, and additional rate cuts could be coming in 2025. But what do lower borrowing costs really mean for E&Ps, midstream companies, refiners and others in the energy industry? In today’s RBN blog, we will examine the impact of lower interest rates on energy companies and whether they might affect plans to boost output and build new infrastructure.
