Oil consolidation will continue to dominate the upstream M&A landscape
Shale gas industry consolidates in the shadows
While US oil mega-mergers are grabbing all the headlines, there is also an understated revolution in the gas patch
The US shale gas industry has taken a significant step to consolidation with the merger between Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, which was announced in January and is due to close in the second quarter of 2024. While mergers and acquisitions in oil dwarf the deals in gas, the Chesapeake-Southwestern merger, valued at $11.5b including debt, is the largest US gas-focused upstream deal in more than ten years. And there is further consolidation potential. According to energy data analytics firm Enverus, there were around $6b worth of gas-focused deals struck in 2023. In its own right that is still significant even if it compares with $186b worth of oil-weighted M&A. High-profile oi
Also in this section
18 February 2026
With marketable supply unlikely to grow significantly and limited scope for pipeline imports, Brazil is expected to continue relying on LNG to cover supply shortfalls, Ieda Gomes, senior adviser of Brazilian thinktank FGV Energia,
tells Petroleum Economist
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
