US oil and gas dealmaking reaches fever-pitch in 2023, Enverus says
23/01/2024 14:30
Jan 23 (Reuters) - Blockbuster takeovers by oil and gas
majors pushed the value of U.S. energy dealmaking last year to a
record $192 billion, more than triple the amount in 2022,
according to data from analytics firms Enverus on Tuesday.
Acquisitions in the Permian shale basin straddling West
Texas and New Mexico, the largest U.S. oilfield, soared in the
last two years as oil prices jumped on strong demand after
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and producers sought producing
wells to guarantee future supplies.
Three pending deals - Exxon Mobil's XOM.N offer for
Pioneer Natural Resources, Chevron's CVX.N bid for Hess and
Occidental Petroleum's OXY.N for CrownRock - drove fourth
quarter deal values to $144 billion - a record level for any
quarter and year.
"Oil and gas is undergoing a historic consolidation wave
comparable to what occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s
giving rise to the modern supermajors,” said Andrew Dittmar, a
senior vice president at Enverus.
Deal mania should continue this year, he said, pointing to
potential divestitures and the expected offer of closely held
shale oil and gas producer Endeavor Energy. Reuters last month
reported the Midland, Texas-based company could fetch between
$25 billion and $30 billion in any sale.
Buyers looking to hive off pieces of those big acquisitions
could generate a flurry of smaller deals this year, Dittmar
said. Private-equity firms also have raised new capital and
"would likely be interested in these non-core assets," he said.
For 2023, acquisitions of oil-producing assets predominated
in the U.S. There was a total of about $186 billion in such
deals last year with Exxon's pending $65 billion offer for
Pioneer the largest.
A smaller $6 billion overall was spent on natural
gas-focused deals last year, compared with $10.6 bllion in 2022,
with the largest being Tokyo Gas' 9531.T $2.7 billion
acquisition of Texas-based Rockcliff Energy, according to
Enverus.
Even though U.S. gas futures NGc1 plunged by about 44% in
2023 after rising about 20% in 2022, the deal comes as part of
the Japanese company's efforts to expand its North American
shale gas operations to meet growing demand for natural gas as
an energy transition fuel.
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Tokyo Gas unit to buy U.S. natgas producer Rockcliff Energy for
$2.7 bln https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/tokyo-gas-unit-buys-us-natgas-producer-rockcliff-energy-27-bn-2023-12-16/
Endeavor Energy explores sale for as much as $30 billion https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/endeavor-energy-explores-sale-much-30-billion-sources-2023-12-08/
Chevron to buy Hess Corp for $53 billion in all-stock deal https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/chevron-buy-hess-corp-53-bln-stock-2023-10-23/
GRAPHIC-US energy dealmaking sets record in 2023 https://reut.rs/3S7kjM6
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(Reporting by Gary McWilliams
Editing by Marguerita Choy)
((Gary.McWilliams@thomsonreuters.com; +1 469-691-7668;))