Mergers and acquisitions in U.S. oil and gas industry hit 17-year low

Last year U.S. oil and gas transactions declined 13% to $58 billion from 2021, according to energy technology company Enverus. At the same time, transaction volume reached its lowest level since 2005 as buyers became more picky about assets.

The reason for the decline is that big companies with strong balance sheets target the best properties in deals of more than a billion dollars. At the same time, according to a recent Enverus note, smaller firms with limited budgets can struggle to find financially attractive assets.

Oil companies are also struggling with less beneficial boreholes. Some of them even search for asset purchases in order to retain incoming oil and gas volumes.

According to Andrew Dittmar, a director at Enverus, the oil and gas market is a platform where prosperous ones get even richer.