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MODERATOR
Claire Poole
Senior Writer, Energy
The Deal
EXPERT PANEL
Christine B. LaFollette
Partner
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
LLP
EXPERT PANEL
Sam Oh
Senior Partner
Apollo
• Oil and gas M&A activity slid 48% in the first quarter of this year, with private equity
firms moving to the sidelines given higher valuations for assets and after a busy fourth
quarter by companies wanting to get ahead of the fiscal cliff, according
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
• The first quarter's activity was propped up mostly by foreign buyers, who focused on
exploration and production opportunities, and strategic investors who searched for
shale opportunities, which made up 46% of deal volume led by the Eagle Ford,
Marcellus, Utica and Bakken shales.
• That led the quarter to be an improvement over the first quarter of last year, with 39
deals greater than $50 million accounting for $27 billion in deal value in 2013 versus 34
deals worth $25.7 billion in 2012.
• While corporate level M&A activity in the oil and gas industry remains fairly stagnant,
asset level transactions appear to be heating up, according to a report June 4 by Global
Hunter Securities Inc.
• The firm notes Apache Corp., which announced last month it plans to sell $4 billion in
assets to pay down debt and buy back shares, including some of its properties in the
Gulf of Mexico (a move that some think was meant to preempt complaints by activist
investors); W&T Offshore Inc., which GHS says has a "sizeable" Gulf of Mexico package
on the market; Whiting Petroleum Corp., whose planned sale of its Postle field in
Oklahoma "seems to be advancing" and could bring in $800 million to $1 billion; and
Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp.'s "healthy bite" of additional Bakken production and acreage
from Riverstone Holdings LLC-backed Liberty Resources LLC for $660 million, which was
announced June 3.
• "With little activist activity over the last little bit now that we've moved through proxy
season, it seems high time for private equity to create some excitement in the oil patch
on the A&D, if not M&A, side of things," the firm said.
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