Upstream Oil & Gas Mergers Hit Yearly Low In 4th Quarter, 2024

Upstream oil and gas industry merger and acquisition (M&A) activity during 2024 came to a robust $105 billion in total deal value according to a new report released Wednesday by big energy data and analysis firm Enverus. The 2024 total was the third highest Enverus has recorded since it began tracking M&A activity in 2014, but the level of action tailed off during the 4th quarter.

2024 Merger Value Declines From Record Highs

“Deal value and volume continued to drop in the final quarter of 2024 from its peak at the end of 2023 as buyers grappled with fewer M&A targets to pursue,” Andrew Dittmar, principal analyst at Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), an Enverus subsidiary, said in a release. “There are also quite a few larger E&Ps working to integrate their previous deals before returning to market to acquire more. Increased volatility in oil prices may have also deterred some buyers, while there is rising enthusiasm for gas and gas-weighted assets to feed burgeoning demand from LNG and data centers.”

Chart showing the Top 5 Upstream Deals tracked by EIR during the 4th quarter of 2024.Enverus Intelligence Research

The largest deal tracked by EIR during the final three months of 2024 came in November, when Coterra Energy acquired Avant Natural Resources and Franklin Mountain Energy in the prolific Delaware Basin - which makes up the western half of the Permian Basin region - for a combined $3.95 billion. “The Permian remains at the top of the list for where buyers would prefer to add assets, but it’s also the most challenging market to buy into from the perspective of available targets and sellers’ expectations on pricing,” said Dittmar.