CDT Roundup: 7 Deals, 7 Firms, 75 Lawyers, $2.2B

Last year, U.S. M&A in the upstream – industry jargon for oil and gas exploration and production – experienced $58 billion transacted in 160 deals, including $13 billion from 26 deals in the fourth quarter, according to a report out last week from Enverus Intelligence Research.

Despite the big totals, 2022 was not a good year. The data firm said that deal values were down just about 20 percent from pre-pandemic averages. To top it off, the volume of transactions collapsed to a nearly two-decade low as activity has been driven by large companies targeting the highest quality assets in billion-dollar-plus deals.