据世界石油网2022年4月13日报道，美国知名能源数据分析和SaaS技术公司Enverus日前发布了其今年第一季度美国上游并购活动总结报告。 由于并购市场进入新的一年，今年第一季度美国上游领域宣布了140亿美元的并购交易。今年1月份的60亿美元并购交易是美国过去5年来最强劲的并购市场启动。 不过，最近一笔重大并购交易发生在3月初，当时大宗商品价格飙升，导致并购交易活动暂时停止。
Enverus负责人安德鲁·迪特马尔表示：“所有使去年上游并购交易保持弹性的因素都延续到了新的一年。这包括上市公司对库存的需求、现成的私人卖家以及优惠的定价。 然而，由于地缘政治冲突导致能源价格的波动，3月份几乎所有的并购交易协议都被搁置。”
总体而言，美国落基山脉地区第一季度的并购交易最为活跃(占第一季度总价值的50%以上)，尤其是买家对北达科他州威利斯顿盆地和科罗拉多州DJ盆地的浓厚兴趣。 二叠纪盆地的交易价值略低于30%，而在马塞勒斯盆地的一笔大交易则推动了东部地区约20%的交易价值。 此前活跃的海恩斯维尔盆地第一季度的并购交易减少，而鹰福特盆地的交易活动持续缓慢，这意味着阿肯色州-洛杉矶-得克萨斯州（Ark-La-Tex）和墨西哥湾地区的并购交易稀少。
在第一季度规模最大的5笔并购交易中，有4笔并购交易的首要主题仍是民营企业退出。切萨皮克能源公司以26亿美元的价格收购私营公司Chief 油气公司和相关的Tug Hill权益，继续扩大其在马塞勒斯盆地东北部的核心天然气库存。
“买家一直对提高交易报价以配合大宗商品价格的上涨持谨慎态度。 即使在最近一轮波动之前，就多数指标而言，上游资产的定价都比历史平均水平低。”伴随战争而来的大宗商品价格迅速飙升，尤其拉大了买家愿意支付的价格和卖家期望得到的价格之间的差距。 而且由于它们之间的差距太大，我们看到了上游并购交易在3月初被暂停。”
一种不太容易受到大宗商品定价风险影响的交易类型是所谓的对等并购。 在这些兼并中，两家规模相似的上市公司合并时，只向被收购公司支付很少或根本没有溢价。 这些类型的交易旨在为投资者创造一个更大、更稳定的平台，在疫情后的市场初期更为常见。 3月初，巴肯盆地的绿洲石油公司和惠廷石油公司的合并是这种类型交易的回归，也是自2021年8月以来的首次公开上市公司合并。 这两家中等规模的生产商可能希望，一家更大的公司将给他们提供更大的规模，以便更好地进行进一步整合，并增加日渐成熟的巴肯盆地的库存。
迪特马尔说：“仍有大量的上游并购交易有待完成。 这些可能来自私营企业的进一步退出，康菲公司和埃克森美孚公司等大型石油生产商的非核心销售，或者其他规模较小的勘探开发公司寻找合并伙伴。我们需要的只是大宗商品价格的稳定，以及一两宗作为基准交易的收购，以重振美国本应活跃的交易市场。”
李峻 编译自 世界石油网
原文如下：
Report shows U.S. upstream mergers and acquisitions open strong in 2022
Enverus, an energy data analytics and SaaS technology company, is releasing its summary of Q1 2022 M&A activity. As the M&A market marched into the new year, $14 billion in deals were announced during the first quarter of 2022. The $6 billion transacted in January 2022 was the strongest M&A market launch in five years. However, the last significant transaction occurred in early March before a spike in commodity prices temporarily halted activity.
“All the factors that kept upstream deals resilient in 2021 carried over into the new year,” said Andrew Dittmar, director at Enverus. “That included a need for inventory by public companies, ready private sellers and favorable pricing. However, the volatility in energy prices stalled nearly all deals in March.”
Overall, deals were most active in the Rockies region (more than 50% of total Q1 22 value) driven particularly by buyer interest in North Dakota’s Williston Basin and Colorado’s DJ Basin. The always consistent Permian Basin captured a bit under 30% of deal value and one big deal in the Marcellus drove the roughly 20% of value allocated to the Eastern region. A lack of deals in the previously active Haynesville and a continued slow pace in the Eagle Ford meant transactions in Ark-La-Tex and the Gulf Coast were sparse.
Private company exits remained a primary theme accounting for four of the five largest deals of the quarter. Chesapeake continued its buildout of core gas-focused inventory in the northeast Marcellus by acquiring private Chief Oil & Gas and associated Tug Hill interests in a $2.6 billion transaction.
“Buyers have been cautious about raising the offer price in deals to match the rise in commodity prices. Even before the latest bout of volatility, upstream assets were pricing cheaply on most metrics relative to historical averages,” Dittmar said. “The quick surge in commodity prices that accompanied the war has particularly blown out the gap between what buyers are willing to pay and sellers expect to get. And because they are so far apart, we have seen a pause in upstream deals.”
One of the deal types less susceptible to commodity pricing risk is the so-called corporate mergers of equals. In these mergers, two public companies of similar size combine with little to no premium paid to the acquired company. These types of deals, targeted at creating a larger and hopefully more stable platform for investors, were more common in the early innings of the post-COVID market. The combination of Oasis Petroleum and Whiting Petroleum in the Bakken in early March was a return to this type of transaction and the first public-public company merger since August 2021. The two mid-sized producers are likely hopeful that a larger company will give them the scale to better pursue further consolidation and add inventory in the maturing Bakken.
“There should still be plenty of upstream deals to be had,” Dittmar said. “Those can come from further private exits, non-core sales by the big producers like ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, or the remaining smaller E&Ps finding merger partners. We just need some stability in commodity pricing and an acquisition or two to benchmark deals to reignite what should be an active market.”
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