Upstream oil and gas M&A rises to $35 billion in Q2 2021

A series of high value mergers in the U.S. Permian Basin led to a sharp increase in global upstream deal value in Q2, according to Evaluate Energy’s latest quarterly M&A report.

“Between April and June, we saw $35 billion in new E&P deals agreed,” said Eoin Coyne, report co-author and senior M&A analyst. “This is eight times higher than the same time last year at the height of the pandemic, and a significant uptick on last quarter where $19 billion in new deals were agreed.”

The full report is available for free download here.

Coyne pointed to flat deal counts to illustrate the impact of a series of high value U.S. mergers (particularly in the Permian).

“Despite the sharp rise in deal value in Q2, what we refer to as ‘significant deal counts’ were remarkably similar to Q1 2021,” he said. Relative to Q1, Q2 saw just two more deals valued at over $100 million (for a total of 30), and the same number of deals valued at over $50 million and $10 million (36 and 54, respectively).

“Meanwhile, we saw $18 billion in new deals agreed in the Permian including deals by Cabot Oil & Gas and Pioneer Natural Resources, and eight deals in total in the U.S. with a value greater than $1 billion.”

For deal analysis in the U.S. and a summary of Q2 green energy deals by oil and gas producers, plus an overview of upstream M&A activity in Canada from Tourmaline Oil, Tamarack Valley Energy and Whitecap Resources, download the full Evaluate Energy report here.