Equity

Encana Corp. late Monday launched a bid that would enable it to double its Permian Basin well count in 2017 with an equity offer to raise more than $1 billion.

Attracted by upside potential, myriad opportunities and sufficient funding, investors have poured into the upstream sector over the last decade, spending nearly $245 billion on exploration and production (E&P) transactions, according to a new study from analytics firm IHS Markit.

Don’t expect any blockbuster deals in the Appalachian Basin anytime soon that would find new entrants in the plays or large swaths of acreage being eaten up, as the financing outlook remains grim for many producers that aren’t that interested and focusing more on their core acreage instead.

Backed with private equity funds, Casillas Petroleum Resource Partners LLC has scooped up some Chesapeake Energy Corp. acreage in the stacked reservoirs of Oklahoma for $106 million.

Backed with private equity funds, Casillas Petroleum Resource Partners LLC has scooped up some Chesapeake Energy Corp. acreage in the stacked reservoirs of Oklahoma for $106 million.

PCORE Exploration & Production II LLC, an exploration and production (E&P) company focused on unconventional oil prospects in North America, said it has raised $200 million in equity commitments from a private equity group and its own management.

An Appalachian-focused exploration and production start-up headquartered in Western Pennsylvania has received a $250 million investment from the energy- and resources-focused private equity firm Denham Capital Management LP.

When oil prices began collapsing last year a lot of prognosticators said it was only a matter of time before oil majors and large independents began eyeing their smaller brethren for takeovers. A year later, there’s little consolidation, but that should change within the next few months, experts say.

Energy trading house Freepoint Commodities LLC and two private equity (PE) partners on Monday agreed to provide $110 million to Whistler Energy II LLC to buy two producing blocks in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM).