Anadarko Basin sees pickup in oil, gas dealmaking as publics, privates add scale

A slate of recent upstream oil and natural gas deals reflects substantial interest among both public and private operators in expanding in Oklahoma, particularly across the mature and often overlooked Anadarko Basin.

The third quarter saw eight transactions across Oklahoma, the most in a single quarter in three years, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data. Corporate and asset deals together totaled $2.5 billion, with the most value transacted in the Anadarko.

ConocoPhillips' intent to raise some cash and turn its attention to assets that provide better returns was behind the largest single transaction of the third quarter. Private Stone Ridge Energy agreed to acquire ConocoPhillips' 300,000 net acres in the Anadarko in a $1.3 billion deal that included net production of about 234 MMcf equivalent/d, with 50% natural gas.

Other transactions during the quarter included two "proved developed producing"-focused operators, Diversified Energy and Presidio Petroleum.

"There does appear to have been a decent uptick in M&A activity in the last couple of months, and with most of the Permian already consolidated, the Anadarko Basin affords smaller operators the chance to expand," said Braden Orr, a principal analyst focused on oil and gas mergers and acquisitions for Commodity Insights.

Commodity Insights is tracking additional upstream opportunities in the area valued at approximately $500 million, Orr said.

Recent transactions

The most recent transaction involved France-based oil major TotalEnergies, which announced Sept. 29 its intent to acquire a 49%, non-operated interest in Continental Resources' Anadarko assets. By 2030, the assets can reach gross production of about 350 MMcf/d and net production of 150 MMcf/d, TotalEnergies said. No deal value was disclosed.

In the largest corporate deal of the quarter, private Presidio Petroleum and EQV Ventures Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, revealed plans to merge and to go public in a deal valued at $660 million. The combined company will absorb Presidio's 2,000-plus PDP wells and assets owned by sponsor EQV Group, sponsor of the SPAC, EQV Ventures.

The pro-forma Presidio Production Company, once public, will continue to consider buying additional assets in the Midcontinent and other basins, including the Barnett and Haynesville Shales, according to an investor presentation.

The third quarter's other corporate deal involved Diversified Energy's acquisition of private Oklahoma E&P Canvas Energy in a $550 million transaction that gives the acquirer more liquids exposure in the Anadarko.

Earlier in the year, Diversified acquired Maverick Natural Resources, which held around 750,000 net acres in the Western Anadarko. Including the Canvas acquisition, Diversified will operate across approximately 1.6 million acres in Oklahoma.

Views on value

For ConocoPhillips, the commodity mix of its 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent/d in the Anadarko did not fit its needs, so the company sought to offload an asset that would be worth more to other operators than to Conoco, CEO Ryan Lance said of the sale to Stone Ridge.

"We're getting plenty of North American natural gas production from our assets in North America, and it just wasn't going to compete for capital as we integrated that asset into the company, and we were pretty pleased with the price that we got," Lance said during a second-quarter 2025 earnings call in August.

Nevertheless, other operators such as Coterra Energy see value in Anadarko's productive and gassy wells, viewing the basin as a backup supply source for Gulf Coast markets where the Haynesville matures and declines.

Coterra brought online its largest gas development in the basin during the second quarter and produced 81,000 boe/d there in that period, more than half of which was dry gas.

When asked during the second-quarter call about the prospect of M&A in the Anadarko Basin, CEO Tom Jorden declined to comment, but said the asset has great profitability.

For Presidio, the mature Anadarko allows room to grow its position and production base without being hampered by the midstream constraints that some other basins endure, co-CEO Will Ulrich said in a recent interview with Platts, part of Commodity Insights.

"It's overbuilt because it went through a significant growth phase 10 to 15 years ago, and then it hasn't seen as much growth in development since then, so there's excess capacity for takeaway there," Ulrich said.

Several operators have also identified Anadarko's Cherokee formation as an emerging opportunity for production growth. Diversified is committing around $100 million per year to a joint venture, which has approximately 245 liquids-weighted locations to drill in the Cherokee. The Cherokee wells generate internal rates of return of around 60%.

"With those types of returns with a very reputable operator, we really, really like the organic growth mechanism that brings to our portfolio in that central region," Diversified CEO Rusty Hutson told Platts in August.

Sheridan Swords, chief commercial officer of pipeline company Oneok, also said the Cherokee is changing the dynamic in the Midcon.

"For a long period of time, I thought the Midcontinent would be kind of flattish ... but now we are actually seeing growth from that area as we continue to go forward out there," Swords said Sept. 30 at the Wolfe Research Utilities, Midstream & Clean Energy Conference in New York.