Upstream M&A reached $105 billion in 2024, says Enverus
Enverus Intelligence® Research (EIR) has published its summary of Q4 and full-year 2024 upstream M&A activity, reporting $105 billion in U.S. upstream deals closed in 2024, the third highest total tracked by Enverus. 2024 trailed only behind a record-setting $192 billion in 2023 and just under the $108 billion booked in 2014. However, activity tumbled in the back half of the year with $9.6 billion of upstream M&A recorded in 4Q24, the fourth consecutive decline in quarterly value.
"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. There are also quite a few larger E&Ps working to integrate their previous deals before returning to market to acquire more," said Andrew Dittmar, principal analyst at EIR. "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."
The most notable shift in the just-completed quarter was the lack of consolidation between publicly traded E&Ps, the first time that has happened in a quarter since 2022. The $188 billion in public company consolidation since the start of 2023, with 11 public deals over $2 billion, leaves significantly fewer targets to pursue. In addition, large buyers like Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Diamondback Energy and ExxonMobil have been busy closing and integrating deals, with timelines often delayed by extra anti-trust scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission.
"While corporate M&A has slowed, the industry is not done consolidating. If you look out a few years from now, there are going to be fewer companies operating in the main U.S. shale plays," said Dittmar.
