Oil and Gas deals worth $76.46 billion were signed globally in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to GlobalData’s deals database.
Deals worth $37.6 billion were signed in the month of December alone.
Global oil and gas deals in the fourth quarter of 2019 were down by 2.4 percent when compared to the third quarter.
Reportedly, the quarter also witnessed a 34 percent drop in the number of deals when compared with the last four-quarter average of $119.37 billion.
A total of 523 global oil and gas deals were signed during the period, which is a drop of 12.4 percent when compared to the last four-quarter average of 597 deals.
A majority of the deals in the fourth quarter were signed in North America which amounted to $43.95 billion.
According to GlobalData, some of the major deals signed during the fourth quarter include Hess Midstream Partners’ $6.2 billion acquisition of Hess Infrastructure Partners, Total’s $5 billion asset transaction with Apache, the $4.51 billion acquisition of Hitachi Chemical by HC Holdings and Showa Denko and Lone Star Funds’ private equity deal with BASF Construction Chemicals for $3.52 billion.
EY’s oil and gas transaction review revealed that global oil and gas deal volume and deal value were down by 17.7 percent and 10.8 percent respectively in 2019.
Andy Brogan, the EY Global Oil and Gas Leader said in a statement, “The oil and gas deal environment continues to reflect uncertainty, as the industry redefines its role and the value of its assets in the face of the growing transition to low-carbon and no-carbon energy.”
“Despite this upheaval, we see an environment in which asset attrition outruns whatever reductions there might be in demand. This means the industry will need to attract capital and offer returns that support continued investment.”