A recent slowdown in US oil and gas acquisitions and divestments doesn't seem to be causing too much concern among those who earn their living in that comer of the industry. Participants at last week's Hart A&D Strategies and Opportunities conference in Dallas acknowledged the dip in dealmaking over the last couple of quarters. But they also pointed to several factors that are likely to drive respectable, if not spectacular, volumes of activity going forward. The US upstream sector saw aggregate A&D deal value of just $8.0 billion in the third quarter of this year, according to the 1 Derrick database. That was down from $19.2 billion in the second quarter and $24.4 billion in the first (EIF Oct.11 '17). However, Scotiabank Managing Director Doug Reynolds said that because of the strong level of activity at the beginning of the year, US deal value for the whole of 2017 looks to be on track to match the annual average for the last decade.
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