Even for a 2018 characterized by shake-ups – firm mergers, office openings, lateral raids – the changes at the top of the first-half M&A legal advisor charts are remarkable. V&E dropped. Kirkland ascended. And two national firms with no presence in Texas took the top deal value spots.

Australian mining giant BHP Billiton announced it sold its U.S. shale properties for $10.8 billion in cash.

The buyers were BP, which picked up BHP’s Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Permian properties under unit Petrohawk Energy for $10.5 billion; and Merit Energy, whose unit MMGJ Hugoton III agreed to acquire BHP’s Fayetteville Shale assets for $300 million.

January 2018 was greeted by stable energy markets, pent-up private equity and a spanking new investor-friendly tax law. That sounds like the elements of a record year, right?

Deal activity among Texas lawyers last week was dominated by transactions in the energy sector, from exploration and production assets changing hands to the continued consolidation of the oilfield services industry.