North American large caps and smaller exploration and production companies now dominate the largest and most economically attractive US shale plays, but the majors and large cap foreign firms are moving in through mergers and acquisitions, said Wood Mackenzie Ltd, Edinburgh, in its latest corporate analysis. According to that report, upstream M&A spending in US shale gas totaled $21 billion in the first 6 months of 2010, equivalent to one third of global upstream M&A spending in that same period. Recent M&A activity in US shale gas has been dominated by an influx of larger, mainly overseas players. Deal activity has evolved with the relative cost of supply for each play. Smaller players often move on to find and prove up the next big shale play. Proved reserve metrics are not helpful in analyzing shale gas deals, according to the WoodMac report.
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