Author: Mark Young

Agreeing M&A deals has proven to be difficult for E&P companies in early 2022.

Upstream Q1 deal values are 47% down on the five-year quarterly average as rising commodity prices alter the market dynamic for buyers and sellers, according to new analysis.

Evaluate Energy’s latest M&A report – available for free download here – shows that just $19 billion in new upstream deals were agreed in Q1. This represents a significant decline in activity despite surging oil and gas prices and continued relaxations of Covid restrictions around the world. Q1 saw WTI hit a peak of $123 per barrel, while gas prices rose sixfold in parts of Europe.

“The prices have created a market where buyers and sellers are reluctant to act. Total deal values are 54% down on the prior quarter and 47% down on the five-year quarterly average,” said Eoin Coyne, Senior M&A Analyst at Evaluate Energy and report co-author.

“Deal counts also fell significantly. Potential selling companies have lacked impetus to part with assets contributing to healthy profits unless a very strong offer is delivered, while buyers are wary to match valuations at what is potentially the top of a price cycle.”

Evaluate Energy’s latest M&A report provides further analysis on the impasse between buyers and sellers in the current market, as well as information on the key deals that were agreed in Q1.

Included in the report:

• U.S. deals dominate the global deal value with Permian assets popular targets
• Private companies are cashing in on U.S. assets acquired during the downturn
• Two supermajors realign their African portfolio in deals totaling around $2 billion
• Canada’s activity limited in tough market, with Vermilion agreeing the only +$100 million deal

Global upstream deal values within oil and gas returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, while the largest volume of production changed hands in more than a decade, according to new data from Evaluate Energy.

The recovery in M&A was driven by rising demand and prices following a year of under-investment in new supply, said Eoin Coyne, Evaluate Energy’s senior M&A analyst.

“2021 saw $144 billion in new upstream deals agreed,” said Coyne, co-author of Evaluate Energy’s latest annual M&A report. “This value is 53% higher than the spend in 2020 and in line with the five-year average annual spend prior to 2020.”

The report – available here – analyses the biggest deals of 2021, including green energy deals and investments agreed by traditional oil and gas majors.

“The fact that overall spend for the year was in line with the non-Covid average annual spend hides just how much upstream M&A took place in 2021,” added Coyne, who co-authored the report. “Over 4 million boe/d of production changed hands around the world, which is the largest total since Evaluate Energy began tracking M&A deals in the oil industry 14 years ago.”

Included within the report:

• Woodside, Santos and BHP undertake multibillion-dollar international mergers
• Pioneer, ConocoPhillips and Continental Resources make Permian acquisitions as Shell exits
• Gas companies join the consolidation wave in the U.S.
• Canadian deals are headlined by the merger of ARC Resources and Seven Generations, and the Cenovus asset sale program
• Shell, Eni and Chevron are among E&P majors to make significant green energy sector investments in 2021

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Evaluate Energy’s latest M&A report shows that between the start of April and the end of September, the Permian Basin in the United States saw almost US$30 billion in new M&A deals announced for E&P assets.

“After a bumper quarter in Q2 that saw over US$18 billion in new deals agreed, Q3 saw just under US$12 billion of its own,” said Eoin Coyne, report author and Senior Analyst at Evaluate Energy.

The vast majority of this Q3 spend came from ConocoPhillips acquiring the Permian assets of Royal Dutch Shell for US$9.5 billion in cash.

“ConocoPhillips had already made a major move with the $13 billion acquisition of Concho Resources during Q4 2020,” said Coyne. “That was an all-stock deal, so ConocoPhillips retained enough liquidity to fund this latest transaction with available cash.”

The other ~US$2.5 billion in Permian deals this quarter included deals by Callon Petroleum, Lime Rock Resources and a royalty interest acquisition by Viper Energy Partners.

For more on these deals and other U.S., Canadian and global upstream M&A activity in Q3 2021, download Evaluate Energy’s latest M&A report at this link.

Top U.S. Upstream Deals in Q3 2021 (Permian deals in bold)

Eni and Shell have been the most active among traditional oil and gas producers when it comes to green energy sector deal making in 2021, according to a new report from Evaluate Energy.

Over the past few years, intense and consistent investor pressure over carbon usage and climate goals has prompted many E&P companies to explore options in greener energy sectors and diversify their portfolios.

Evaluate Energy’s new report includes a rundown of every upstream deal in Q3 2021 and details on green energy investments by oil and gas producers. It is available for download at this link.

Eni’s busy third quarter is the reason for its position atop the rankings.

“Four of Eni’s six green energy deals were announced between July and September,” said Mark Young, report co-author and Senior Analyst at Evaluate Energy. “These latest investments will see the company acquire Italy’s second largest operator in the electric vehicle charging space, as well as increase its European wind and solar operational capacity by over 650MW.”

Shell joins Eni with six investments made up to September 30.

“Early activity from Shell this year was also mainly focused on European markets, but its two most recent investments have both been in the U.S.,” said Young. “These two U.S. deals included the acquisition of a renewable energy residential retailer and a sustainable fuels producer.”

Details on all of Q3’s major green energy investments by Eni, Shell and other upstream companies are available as part of Evaluate Energy’s latest M&A report.

Note for chart: “Other” includes deals in the following sectors, among others: Biomethane, Geothermal, Hydro, Retail power from renewable energy, Green energy-related technology.

Evaluate Energy’s latest report shows that upstream M&A spending reached $44 billion around the world during Q3 based on deals announced between July and September.

This total is:

• 23% higher than $36 billion in Q2; and
• 25% higher than average quarterly spending over the past five years.

Spending was supported by strong prices for oil and gas.

“Oil demand increases reflected a resurgent global economy and a relative lack of supply from either the free market or OPEC+,” said Eoin Coyne, report author and Senior Oil & Gas Analyst at Evaluate Energy. “This led to an average WTI price in Q3 of $70.23, the highest quarterly average price since 2014. Natural gas saw an even more acute imbalance. Parts of Europe saw record natural gas prices and Henry Hub price averages in the U.S. hit $4.19, an increase of 47% on the average price in Q2.”

Despite the increase in deal value on previous quarters, the overall activity level was unchanged.

“What we refer to as ‘significant deal counts’ were identical in Q3 and Q2,” Coyne said. “Thirty-five deals were valued at greater than $50 million in both quarters. Larger corporate deals and higher valuations for asset deals due to increased oil and gas prices accounted for the overall higher deal value in Q3.”

Evaluate Energy’s M&A report for Q3 2021 includes analysis on the following:

• Permian Basin deals involving Shell, ConocoPhillips, Callon Petroleum and more
• Spartan Delta’s continued growth in Canada and a recent spike in royalty interest acquisitions involving Topaz Energy and PrairieSky
• Multibillion-dollar deals affecting the natural gas industry in Australia and Brazil’s ultra-deepwater oilfields
• Green energy sector deals involving Shell, BP, Eni and Galp

Canada’s oilsands majors continue to generate huge amounts of free cash flow in 2021.

Higher commodity prices in the first half of 2021, coupled with a slow return to pre-pandemic levels of capital spending, has resulted in operating cash flow significantly outweighing capital budgets for many producers across the U.S. and Canadian upstream sectors this year.

This is especially true in the Canadian oilsands, with Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy recording a combined free cash flow of $7.8 billion in the first half of the year.

This analysis is part of a new Evaluate Energy report on key cash flow and capital management trends across the North American upstream sector. Access the report here.

While it is not unusual for oilsands producers to generate billions in free cash flow, these 2021 values remain highly significant. Only three financial quarters between the start of 2018 and the beginning of the pandemic in Q1 2020 saw values higher than the free cash flow recorded in either Q1 or Q2 2021.

Despite this recent high in free cash flow, the data also shows that capital spending has now recovered to pre-pandemic levels for the five producers.

These oilsands companies never deviated far from spending $2.5-$3.5 billion each quarter before the pandemic started in Q1 2020, and Q2 2021 was the first quarter of that magnitude since. This can actually be seen across the Canadian industry, with the other 37 Canadian producers in our report recording combined Q2 capex greater than averages seen prior to the pandemic.

Evaluate Energy’s Q2 2021 cash flow review for North American oil and gas producers is available now. The report includes analysis of dividend increases, capital budget levels and debt-related spending for 86 U.S. and Canadian oil and gas producers.

The 2021 Top Operators Report from the Daily Oil Bulletin looks back at how Canada’s oil and gas leaders pivoted to meet the challenges of 2020, and how they are positioning their organizations for future success.

Download the report here.

Once again, the report taps into the experience of professional services firm KPMG in Canada to provide insight into what strategies operators could pursue to thrive in the current environment.

The report also features a broad swath of the insights and opinions from industry leaders gleaned from Daily Oil Bulletin coverage, along with commentary from data providers Evaluate Energy and CanOils.

The following articles available via JWN Energy contain some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Rocked by volatility, investors want to see stable returns on their capital
• Building back better means managing financial risk
• Back-office automation, data driven decision-making is driving next wave of operational efficiency
• Producers focus on financial health, operational excellence, shareholder interests, and ESG concerns
• ESG factors becoming integrated into financial risk management
• Tough debt and equity markets mean living within means

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.

Canada’s oil producers contradicted almost every key cash spending pattern across the North American oil and gas industry in Q1, despite enjoying the same increase in operating cash flow thanks to increasing commodity prices, according to new analysis from Evaluate Energy.

Below is a summary of how the 15 producers – which excludes any of Canada’s oilsands majors – bucked two of the key overarching industry trends identified in a new report, available to download here.

Trend #1: Free cash flow surges in Q1

The new report examines 86 U.S. and Canadian oil and gas producers. For most, the sudden injection of Q1 cash flow meant a major increase in free cash flow (the $ difference between operating cash flow and capital spending). The full group of 86 companies in Evaluate Energy’s report recorded a combined US$9.3 billion in free cash flow in Q1 2021, with capex only reaching 53% of operating cash flow. Average free cash flow for the group between 2018 and 2020 was just US$1.4 billion.

This heavily juxtaposes the behaviour of the 15 Canadian oil producers in that group of 86. For them, capex almost matched operating cash flow in two straight quarters following a recent free cash flow high of around C$500 million in Q3 2020. In Q1 2021, the two figures were a mere $43 million apart, meaning capital spending was at a level reaching 95% of operating cash flow in the quarter.

Trend #2: Debt repayment grows at expense of increasing capital spending

With capex increasing almost entirely in line with operating cash flow, the behaviour of Canadian oil producers related to debt repayment was completely different to the rest of the companies in Evaluate Energy’s report.

Comparing Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, the industry at large saw net debt repayments skyrocket to 39% of total cash outflow for the 86 companies as a group, having been around 6% just a year earlier. The rise in operating cash flow in early 2021 saw focus shift quickly to balance sheet repair rather than capital spending.

The 15 Canadian oil producers, however, saw debt repayment fall back in importance year-over-year to just 20% of total cash spending compared to 32% in Q1 2020. It is also worth noting that debt-related spending would still have fallen back in Q1 2021 to 29% of cash outflow even if Enerplus’ Q1 $529 million corporate acquisition-related cash spend had not taken place.

For more on Canada’s oil producers and company-by-company data, as well as the segmented cash flow trends for their U.S.-based counterparts, oilsands producing majors and North American gas-weighted producers, download Evaluate Energy’s cash flow report for Q1 2021 at this link.