Dealmaking in the U.S. oil and natural gas upstream segment was on cruise control between July and September, with an estimated $14 billion spent for 25 transactions, but two mega-mergers announced this month may signal that transactions to year’s end may go into overdrive.

A summary of 3Q2023 upstream merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, compiled by Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), offered a precursor to the two big deals already announced in October.

“A liftoff in corporate consolidation picked up the slack of declining opportunities to buy private assets, with two-thirds of deal value last quarter coming from combinations between public companies,” the EIR analysts said. “That accelerated to historic levels in October…”

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