Oklahoma City-based Riley Exploration Permian Inc. is extending its presence in New Mexico through the acquisition of oil and gas assets from Pecos Oil & Gas LLC, valued at $330 million in cash, according to the company's announcement on February 28.

Vital Energy Inc. has made a significant acquisition, purchasing 11,200 net acres in Upton and Reagan counties, Texas. The deal, which involved a combination of cash and stock, was worth almost $214 million. This move comes shortly after the company's rebranding from Laredo Petroleum just one month ago.

BP acquired renewable natural gas (RNG) provider Archaea Energy Inc. for $4.1 billion on December 28, marking a milestone in the growth of BP’s strategic bioenergy business. The acquisition, announced in October, was finalized following BP’s completion of regulatory requirements and Archaea obtaining shareholder approval.

On January 5 Northern Oil & Gas (NOG) concluded a deal to acquire working interests in Midland-Petro D.C. Partners LLC (MPDC)'s Mascot Project in the Midland Basin, according to a January 9 press release. Firstly estimated at $330 million in cash, the deal was signed with an additional 3.25% working interest added to the 36.7% agreed upon when the transaction was announced on October 19. NOG paid $29 million more for the additional interests, which now totalled 39.958%. Finally, the deal closed for $320 million in cash and $43 million in debt at signing in October with the finance of Minnetonka, Minn.-based NOG with cash on hand, operating free cash flow, and assistance from its revolving credit facility.

Talos Energy Inc. is closing its $1.1 billion purchase of private operator EnVen Energy. A special meeting for Talos’ stockholders to vote on the deal and other matters is set on February 8, according to a prospectus filed on January 11 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Shareholders are being asked to approve the EnVen merger, which as the company considered in September would raise its Gulf of Mexico production up to 40%. According to a January 11 press release, Talos asserted that it anticipates closing the transaction soon after the meeting. Talos Energy Inc. supposes that adding EnVen would double its operated deepwater facility footprint, extending key infrastructure in existing Talos operating areas. More than 80% of the combined assets will be deepwater, with the company operating more than 75% of the acreage it holds interests in. Talos is one of the largest independent operators in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, with production operations, prospects, leases, and seismic databases spanning the basin in both Deep Water and Shallow Water. The company aims to actively grow through a balanced focus on asset optimization, development, and exploration while also seeking to add to its portfolio through acquisitions and business development.

On January 3, Targa Resources Corp asserted that it is purchasing the remaining stake for $1.05 billion in cash from BlackstoneInc's energy unit in its Grand Prix NGL Pipeline that it does not already own. Targa, which is going to acquire a 25% stake from Blackstone Energy Partners, purchased 75% interest in the pipeline last year when it repurchased interests in its development company joint ventures from investment firm Stonepeak Partners LP for almost $925 million. The Stonepeak agreement also included 100% interest in its Train 6 fractionator in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and a 25% equity interest in the Gulf Coast Express Pipeline. Grand Prix has the capacity to transfer up to 1 MMbbl/d of NGL to the NGL market hub at Mont Belvieu. The same day Targa maintained the price of the Blackstone Energy Partners agreement, which is anticipated closing in the first quarter of 2023, representing roughly 8.75 times Grand Prix's valued 2023 adjusted EBITDA multiple.

According to the company’s press release on December 19, Northern Oil and Gas Inc. (NOG) closed its announced deal with a private seller of non-operated interests in the Northern Delaware Basin for $131.6 million in cash. The acquisition was announced with a $13 million deposit in October and is the third Permian Basin acquisition since August, adding to NOG’s $400 million of Permian Basin acquisitions in 2022. The assets of 2,100 net acres are primarily operated by a private company Mewbourne Oil Co., with production anticipated to total almost 2,500 boe/d in 2023. Also, Coterra Energy Inc. and Permian Resource Corp. are operators of the assets. The assets contain high-quality, low breakeven development that is leveraged to some of NOG’s top operating partners, as our investors have come to expect.

On November 16 Diamondback Energy Inc. decided to expand in the Midland portion of the Permian Basin with the acquisition of Lario Permian LLC in a $1.55 billion cash-and-stock transaction. The Permian operator announced another billion-dollar agreement to purchase FireBird Energy LLC, a private Midland Basin operator. In total, Diamondback is paying almost $3.3 billion to extend in the Midland Basin. When combined with the pending FireBird acquisition, Diamondback is increasing its Midland Basin footprint by roughly 83,000 net acres, is adding 500 high-quality drilling opportunities that compete for capital with the current development plan and is raising the 2023 production profile by almost 37,000 bbl/d of oil (50,000 boe/d).

Northern Oil and Gas Inc. (NOG) made a $330 million purchase in the Permian Basin, according to the release on October 19. NOG revealed an agreement to purchase a 36.7% working interest in the Mascot Project from Midland-Petro D.C. Partners LLC (MDPC). The acquisition will be funded with cash on hand, operating free cash flow, and borrowings. The Mascot Project is operated by Permian Deep Rock Oil Co., an affiliate of MPDC, which is a David H. Arrington-owned business based in Midland, Texas. NOG anticipates that the production from the acquired properties to average almost 4,400 boe/d in the first quarter of 2023 and 6,450 boe/d for the full-year 2023 (2-stream, about 80% oil).

On October 19, Shell USA completed the almost $1.96 billion acquisition of the master limited partnership. The company paid $15.85 in cash for every common unit representing limited partner interests in SHLX not held by Shell USA or its affiliates. A subsidiary of Shell USA has 269,457,304 SHLX common units or roughly 68.5% of SHLX common units.

Continental ResourcesInc. agreed to be purchased by its founder, Harold G. Hamm, in a $4.3 billion cash deal that would take the U.S. shale giant private. On October 17 Continental, based in Oklahoma City, concluded an agreement to be acquired by Omega AcquisitionInc., an entity owned by Hamm, for $74.28 per share. The offer price denotes a 15% premium to the closing price on June 13 — the day before Hamm’s family revealed their initial $70 per share proposal. Even with the proposed incremental leverage from the buyout, CLR would be almost 0.6x leveraged in 2023, and expected FCF, even before assuming reduced costs from going private (else dividend), would have the term loan repaid in about 1.5 years. As a private company, Continental should have greater freedom to operate, particularly in areas such as exploration. Being a chairman of Continental Resources, Hamm and his family own 83% of the company’s stock. Based on the shares outstanding as of October 12, the tender offer would be for almost 58 million shares of common stock, according to the Continental release. The tender offer values Continental at roughly $27 billion. The offer price is slightly under Siebert Williams Shank & Co. LLC’s $75 price target and compares to the consensus price target of $72.86 on FactSet and $71.73 on Bloomberg.

FireBird Energy LLC, a private Midland Basin operator backed by RedBird Capital Partners and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, purchases Diamondback Energy Inc. in a cash-and-stock transaction estimated at almost $1.6 billion, according to a company release on Oct. 11. Moreover, Diamondback also unveiled an aim to sell not less than $500 million of noncore assets by year-end 2023, with proceeds earmarked for further debt reduction, to support the Midland, Texas-based company’s pledge to reward shareholders.

Kinder Morgan Inc. decided to sell half of its 51% interest in an LNG facility in Georgia on September 27 with proceeds allocated by the Houston-based company to pay short-term debt and buy back shares. As it is acknowledged, an undisclosed financial buyer purchases the 25.5% equity interest in Elba Liquefaction Co. LLC (ELC) for approximately $565 million. ELC is a joint venture (JV) established in 2017 to build and own the Elba liquefaction facility situated on #Elba Island in Chatham County, Georgia. After completion, Kinder Morgan and the undisclosed financial buyer will each hold a 25.5% stake in ELC. Meanwhile, Blackstone Credit will continue to hold a 49% interest. The value of the equity interest considers an enterprise value of almost $2.3 billion for ELC, which is about 13 times 2022E EBITDA. The transaction has an economic effective date of July 1. The Elba liquefaction facility has 10 modular liquefaction units for a total capacity of roughly 2.5 million tonnes per year of LNG. Kinder Morgan considers it equivalent to almost 350 MMcf/d of natural gas.

Talos Energy Inc. is acquiring EnVen Energy Corp. for $1.1 billion to raise Talos’ Gulf of Mexico production by 40%. The purchase of EnVen, a private operator, increases Talos' operated deepwater facility footprint 2 times, expanding key infrastructure in existing Talos operating areas. Almost 80% of the assets will be deepwater, with Talos operating more than 75% of the acreage it holds interests in. During a conference call on September 22, it was announced that the EnVen purchase “just checks a lot of boxes” in terms of scale, assets, similar strategies, and what Talos is doing from a technology standpoint. EnVen holds 78 MMboe of 2P reserves and 420,000 gross acres in the Gulf of Mexico. The deal also includes about 24,000 boe/d to Talos’ production stream. Consideration for the transaction consists of 43.8 million Talos shares and $212.5 million in cash, plus the assumption of EnVen's net debt upon closing, currently valued to be $50 million at year-end 2022.

On August 31 Ring Energy Inc. purchased privately-held Stronghold Energy, adding operations that are mainly situated in Crane County, Texas, in the Permian Basin’s Central Basin Platform. According to a September 1 Ring Energy release, this transaction fully complements the conventional-focused Central Basin Platform and Northwest Shelf asset positions in the Permian Basin. The majority owned by Warburg Pincus LLC, Stronghold’s operations are concentrated on the development of about 37,000 net acres situated mainly in Crane County. In July Ring Energy entered into an agreement to buy Stronghold Energy II Operating LLC and Stronghold Energy II Royalties LP for $200 million in cash at closing and $230 million in Ring equity based on a 20-day volume weighted average price. Consideration also involved a $15 million deferred cash payment due six months after closing and $20 million of existing Stronghold hedge liability increasing the total transaction value to $465 million. Stronghold’s asset base is almost 99% operated, 99% working interest, and 99% HBP. In July, Ring announced the current net production of Stronghold’s asset base was approximately 9,100 boe/d (54% oil, 75% liquids).

The completion of the merger between Centennial Resource Development Inc. and Colgate Energy Partners II LLC happened on Sept. 1, sealing the debut of Permian Resources Corp., which is considered the largest pure-play E&P company in the Delaware Basin. Permian Resources’ idea was to combine two successful E&P companies, creating a better, stronger, and more strategically compelling company. Centennial and Colgate announced an agreement to merge in May, denying rumors that Colgate, a privately held independent Midland-based company, had been seeking an IPO. The merger estimated Colgate at about $3.9 billion and consists of 269.3 million shares of Centennial stock, $525 million of cash, and the assumption of approximately $1.4 billion of Colgate’s outstanding net debt. Permian Resources, being the combined company, has a deep inventory of “high-quality” drilling locations on around 180,000 net acres the companies anticipate will provide more than $1 billion of free cash flow in 2023 at current strip prices, in accordance with the company release on Sept. 1.

On 27 June, the analysts at Kpler spread the word that the exports of crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast could break a record 3.3 MMbbl/d this quarter as Europe has regard to U.S. crude which can outweigh sanctioned Russian oil. Due to Washington's decision to release 180 MMbbl of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, U.S. exports have increased in the last three months, as it has flooded the domestic market. Exports to Europe are anticipated averaging approximately 1.4 MMbbl/d this quarter, about 30% higher than the year-ago quarter, meanwhile, export to Asia is set to decrease to less than 1 MMbbl/d. Despite that the U.S. has lost about 1 MMbbl/d of refining capacity since 2020, it also boosted exports thanks to the government’s intervention to back crude supplies which has had consequences in growth in exports. Throughput via the Port of Corpus Christi has grown by more than 150,000 bbl/d and has become 1.86 MMbbl/d. Nevertheless, Port of Houston exports also have been increasing since the third quarter of last year, they remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Earthstone Energy Inc., based in Texas, announced the transaction on June 28: the acquisition of Titus Oil&Gas which will raise production in the Delaware Basin by 26%. The $627 million acquisition fills the Permian Basin in Eddy and Lea counties, N.M. with 86 net locations on 7,900 net acres of leasehold, while it is not clear how much of the leasehold might be on federal acreage It is Earthstone’s seventh acquisition since 2021, a span that includes the closing of approximately $1.89 billion in acquisitions in the Permian Basin. The purchase of Titus Oil & Gas Production LLC and Titus Oil & Gas Production II LLC, privately held companies backed by NGP Energy Capital Management LLC, is estimated at $575 million in cash and it is the equivalent of $52 million in stock (3.9 million shares of its Class A common stock based on the June 24 closing price). Titus shared that its net production in June was 31,800 boe/d. The company had reserves of approximately 28.9 MMboe. Earthstone is sure its net production will increase, at the midpoint, by 20,500 boe/d (65% oil) in the fourth quarter.

Around 25,000 net acres in the Permian are being sold by Percussion Petroleum II, looking to fetch up to $1.5 billion, as some sources bet on rising oil prices to pocket more than double what it paid in 2021. The company spent $375 million plus contingent payments a year ago to buy the bulk of its assets in one of the most prolific crude-producing areas in the U.S. from Oasis PetroleumInc. The oil prices increased to triple digits and buyers wanted to gain a toehold in the basin, whereas backers of private shale companies such as Percussion use it as a chance to exit their investments with big profits. Remarkably, U.S. crude oil futures have grown about 50% to approximately $109/bbl since June 29, 2021, when Percussion closed its deal with Oasis.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Vine Energy Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Chesapeake will acquire Vine.