TotalEnergies kicked off 2024 with a net income of $5.7 billion in the first quarter, marking a modest 3% increase from the same period last year and a 13% rise from the previous quarter. This growth occurred despite experiencing drops in both the volume and price of gas sales over the year and the quarter. Their adjusted net earnings, which exclude one-time or unusual items, were $5.1 billion. This represents a significant 22% decline compared to last year and a slight 2% drop from the last quarter. The company's earnings before tax, depreciation, and amortization reached $11.5 billion, while their cash flow from operations significantly decreased to $2.2 billion, falling by 58% from last year and a steep 87% from the previous quarter. TotalEnergies also recorded $644 million in impairments.

The Canadian oil and gas sector announced 27 M&A deals in the last quarter of 2023, totaling $4.2 billion in value. The biggest deal of the quarter was Pembina Pipeline's $2.3 billion acquisition of several companies including Alliance Pipeline and Aux Sable Canada. Compared to the previous quarter, the total value of M&A deals in Canada grew by 20% from $3.5 billion and jumped 95% compared to the same quarter the previous year. However, the number of deals dropped slightly by 4% from the previous quarter and was 23% less than the year before.

The $26 billion purchase of Endeavor Energy Resources by Diamondback Energy, with its stock up 2.6%, is the newest big deal combining oil and gas production in the Permian Basin under a few big companies

Chevron is selling its Canadian shale production operations as part of a wider plan to concentrate its investments on more profitable projects in the United States.

-Crescent Point Energy finalized its $1.9 billion purchase of Hammerhead Energy to expand operations in Alberta's Montney Shale -Two Canadian companies merged to increase their presence in Alberta's Kaybob Duvernay area -Ring Energy completed acquisition in the Permian Basin

Pembina Pipeline Corporation PBA, a well-known player in the Canadian midstream sector, recently announced its plan to acquire Enbridge Inc.'s remaining shares in the Alliance Pipeline, Aux Sable pipelines, and NRGreen joint ventures. The deal, valued at C$3.1 billion or US$2.3 billion, marks a key step for Pembina in asserting its leadership in North America's natural gas transportation sector. This strategic acquisition is expected to considerably boost Pembina's growth and profitability in the coming years.

Tenaris has successfully finalized the purchase of Mattr's Pipe Coating Division, previously known as Shawcor, for a total of $182.6 million. This figure includes working capital and $16.9 million in cash. Announced back on August 14, 2023, the acquisition has now received the green light from regulatory bodies in both Mexico and Norway.

Baytex Energy Corp., a prominent oil and gas company, has struck a deal to sell part of its Viking assets located in Forgan and Plato, southwest Saskatchewan. The transaction sealed at CAD 153.8 million (approximately US$113.23 million).

Peyto Exploration & Development Corp., a notable natural gas producer in Canada, has secured a significant acquisition deal with Repsol, a Spanish energy conglomerate, for its Canadian assets at $468 million. This acquisition is a deviation from Peyto's traditional approach of smaller, bolt-on acquisitions, reflecting a strategic evolution aimed at positioning the company to take advantage of the anticipated changes in North America's ability to export oil and gas by 2025.

Houston-based Murphy Oil Corp. has successfully concluded the divestiture of its non-core operated assets located across its Western Canadian terrain, including the assets in the Kaybob Duvernay region and the complete non-operated Placid Montney position through a subsidiary. The divestiture was initially made public in August and was concluded. The transaction yielded cash proceeds of around US$104 million (CA$141 million), slightly lower than the originally anticipated US$112 million.

Rangeland Energy has agreed to sell Rangeland Midstream Canada to Kingston Midstream Alberta and remains committed to future Canadian midstream investments. Texas-based Rangeland Energy, supported by financial partner EnCap Flatrock Midstream, has inked a deal to sell its Canadian subsidiary, Rangeland Midstream Canada Ltd., to Calgary's Kingston Midstream Alberta Ltd. for cash.

Energy Transfer's unit prices have surged over 13% this year, bolstered by two significant acquisitions. The company spent nearly $1.5 billion on acquiring Lotus Midstream, a deal that will instantly boost its free and distributable cash flow. A recently inked $7.1 billion deal to acquire Crestwood Equity Partners is also set to immediately enhance the company's distributable cash flow per unit. Energy Transfer aims to unlock commercial opportunities and refinance Crestwood's debt, amplifying the deal's value proposition. These strategic acquisitions provide the company additional avenues for expanding its distribution, which already offers a strong yield of 9.2%. Energized by both organic growth and its midstream consolidation efforts, Energy Transfer aims to uplift its payout by 3% to 5% annually.

Murphy Oil has entered into a purchase and sale agreement to sell a section of its Kaybob Duvernay assets and entire Placid Montney assets. A subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corp. has entered into an agreement to sell a "non-core segment" of its operated Kaybob Duvernay assets and its entire non-operated Placid Montney assets to a private company, as stated in the company's earnings report released on August 3rd. The transaction is set to take effect from March 1, 2023, and the closing is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of the same year.

Canadian heavy crude, being deeply discounted for several years due to a lack of pipelines, is eventually trading like a “North American” grade, moving in tandem with U.S. sour crudes sold on the GulfCoast thanks to Enbridge’s expansion of its 3 pipeline late last year. Meanwhile, the Gulf is full of sour crude over Washington’s largest-ever release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) that will amount to 180 MMbbl during six months, trying to tame exorbitant fuel prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The market is flooded with millions of barrels of sour crude from storage caverns in Louisiana and Texas. At the world’s biggest heavy crude refining center, U.S. Gulf Coast, heavy grades like Mars and Poseidon are languishing. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, Canada exports around 4.3 MMbbl/d to the United States, whereas until last year demand to ship crude on export pipelines increased capacity, leaving barrels bottlenecked in Hardisty.

Under the agreement, Energy Transfer will sell its 51% interest in Energy Transfer Canada to the Pembina-KKR joint venture, for more than CA$1.6 billion (US$1.3 billion) including debt and preferred equity. KKR's funds already own the remaining stake. TC’s assets include 6 natural gas processing plants with a combined operating capacity of 1.29 Bcf/d and an 848-mile naturalgas gathering and transportation network in the Western Canadian Sedimentary (WCS) basin. While this process is underway, Pembina and KKR will combine their Western Canadian natural gas processing assets into a single, new joint venture entity — Newco, owned 60% by Pembina and 40% by KKR. This new entity is expected to have a natural gas processing capacity of about 5 Bcf/d or about 16% of Western Canada’s total processing capacity.

As part of its effort to expand its Montney Shale play, Vermilion Energy Inc. recently acquired Leucrotta Exploration Inc. for a net cash purchase price of CA$477 million. Vermilion has identified 275 high-quality, high-return, low-risk multi-zone drilling prospects. Top management believes, these prospects represent 20 or more years of low-risk, self-funding, high-deliverability shale drilling. Assuming the anticipated May closing date, Vermilion is increasing its capital budget for E&D in 2022 to $500 million and increasing guidance for production from 86,000 to 88,000 boe/d to take into account the Leucrotta acquisition.

Canada is looking at ways to increase pipeline utilization to boost crude exports as Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian oil At the moment, oil exports from Canada to the U.S. are approximately 4 million barrels of oil per day, with a portion reexported to other countries. At the end of 2021 Canadian oil companies exported a record amount of crude from the U.S. Gulf Coast, mostly to big importers India, China, and South Korea. And this will only increase in the future.

TC Energy, the Canadian gas giant, recently announced its environmental, social, and governance goals, as well as emission reduction strategies. The company aims to become 100% emission-free by 2050 while promising to cut greenhouse gas emissions intensity from its operations by 30% by 2030 as an interim measure.

TC PipeLines LP will be the new owner. See it on a map.