US Upstream M&A Deals Reach $105bn in 2024

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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA (Steve Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 29.Jan.2025) — Enverus subsidiary Enverus Intelligence® Research (EIR), said upstream merger & acquisition (M&A) deals closed in the US reached a value of $105bn in 2024, the third highest total tracked by Enverus.

This value only trailed a record-setting $192bn in 2023. This compares $108bn booked in 2014. M&A activity fell in the back half of the year with $9.6bn of upstream M&A recorded in the fourth-quarter 204 (4Q:24), marking the fourth consecutive decline in quarterly value, EIR said 29 Jan. 2025 in an official statement

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“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,” EIR principal analyst Andrew Dittmar said in the statement.

“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,” Dittmar said.

The most notable shift in the just-completed quarter was the lack of consolidation between publicly traded exploration & production companies or E&Ps, the first time that has happened in a quarter since 2022. 

The $188bn in public company consolidation since the start of 2023, with 11 public deals over $2bn, leaves significantly fewer targets to pursue, EIR said. Additionally, 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 (FTC).

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“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 US shale plays,” Dittmar said.

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By Steve Stewart reporting from Baton Rouge. © 2025 Energy Analytics Institute (EAI). All Rights Reserved.

ENERGY ANALYTICS INSTITUTE (EAI) https://energy-analytics-institute.org

Energy Analytics Institute (EAI), formerly LatinPetroleum.com, is a Houston-established private organization with a satellite presence in Calgary, Mexico City and Venezuela where it operates under Editores LatinPetroleum SA. Since 1999, EAI has been a leader in energy news coverage of Latin America in particular. Coverage, run out of Latin America, now spans the world and encompasses nearly all energy and energy-related sectors.

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