Reporter of China Industry NewsYu Na
Towards the end of the year, the ownership of US shale oil producer Crownrock has finally settled.
A few days ago, Occidental Petroleum (oxyUS) announced that it has completed a buyout agreement to acquire US shale oil producer Crownrock for US$12 billion (85.4 billion yuan) to expand its control over the largest shale oil field in the United States. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.
*: Photo.com.
The buyer "was Occidental Petroleum, not ConocoPhillips (COP.), which had been rumoredUS), Devon Energy (DVN.).us）。
Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Occidental Petroleum will acquire Crownrock for cash and ** in a transaction valued at approximately $10.8 billion, in addition, the terms of the acquisition require Occidental Petroleum to assume $1.2 billion of debt held by Crownrock.
According to public information, Crownrock is a large private energy producer jointly founded by Crown Quest Operating LLC and Lime Rock Partners, headquartered in Midland, Texas, mainly engaged in shale oil extraction, oil sales, oil field development and other related businesses. WhileMidland is located in the Permian Basin, a powerhouse of energy production in the United States. Currently, Crownrock owns about 8With 60,000 acres of land, it is one of the largest closed oil and gas producers in the region. Oil production in West Texas and New Mexico has doubled in just six years, surpassing OPEC heavyweight Iraq in daily production.
According to WiseTech Energy, Occidental Petroleum will see its shale oil and gas production jump to sixth place in the U.S., surpassing the combined output of Chevron and its newly acquired companies, according to WiseTech Energy.
If successful, it will further expand Occidental Petroleum's $38 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in 2019After expanding the portfolio.
It is worth mentioning that the deal also received the help of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK., owned by Warren Buffett, the largest shareholder of Occidental Petroleuma.US).
On December 13, local time, according to Berkshire Hathaway's documents submitted to the U.S. ** Exchange Commission (SEC), the institution increased its position in Occidental Petroleum for three consecutive days that week, with a cumulative cost of about 5$88.7 billion acquired nearly 10.5 million shares of Occidental Petroleum**. After this increase, Berkshire's holdings of Occidental Petroleum increased to 23.8 billion shares, and the shareholding ratio climbed to 27More than 13%, with a total market value of about 136$4.8 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway's continued increase in positions after the announcement of the merger means that Buffett still votes in favor of the company's prospects.
In post-pandemic oil prices**, oil executives have been acquiring large amounts of cash to acquire competitors for new drilling sites. A series of mergers and acquisitions around oil and gas assets by international oil majors have risen.
Occidental Petroleum's $12 billion acquisition of Crownrock is the third major deal in the U.S. energy industry in recent times. Earlier, ExxonMobil (XOMUS) just acquired Vanguard Natural Resources (PXD.) for about $60 billionUS), Chevron (CVX.).US) acquired Hess (Hes.) for $53 billionus）。
On October 11, ExxonMobil announced that it would acquire another oil producer, Pioneer Natural Resources, for $253 per share, for a total of $59.5 billion. Upon completion of the acquisition, ExxonMobil is expected to produce 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the Permian Basin. It's the largest corporate acquisition so far this year and the largest in the oil and gas industry since Exxon's $81 billion acquisition of Mobil in 1999. The companies said they expect the deal to close in the first half of 2024. The deal will also make ExxonMobil the largest oil producer in the Permian Basin.
According to the data, Pioneer Natural Resources is the third largest shale oil producer in the Permian Basin after Chevron and ConocoPhillips, and its shale oil industry is mainly concentrated in the Permian Basin in West Texas. Crownrock and Pioneer Natural Resources, which were acquired by Occidental Petroleum, both own shale oil fields in the Permian Basin.
On October 23, U.S. oil giant Chevron announced that it would acquire all of the U.S. oil and gas producer Hess for $53 billion. This is the second major M&A deal in the U.S. oil and gas industry in recent times, following ExxonMobil's $59.5 billion acquisition. Chevron has further expanded its oil and gas reserves in the Starbrook Block in Guyana with the acquisition of Hess.
Some analysts believe that the recent two large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas industry show that the US oil giants are still betting heavily and firmly believe that oil and gas will remain the core of the global energy world in the coming decades. Some analysts saidThe oil and gas industry is likely to see a wave of mergers and acquisitions, and deals are expected to continue in the coming months.
Andrew Dietmar, M&A expert at Enverus"The battle to reduce inventories has begun, and there are still opportunities for shale oil deals and M&A," he said. ”
Review: Yu Zaozao.
Editor-in-charge: Huo Yue.
Editor: Hu Na