Oil, gas deal tracker: $1.4B Brazilian asset sale gives January a boost YOY

The value of asset-level transactions in the oil and gas industry nearly quadrupled year over year in January, largely driven by a Brazilian sale, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

The number of announced asset transactions plunged year over year, from 34 in January 2021 to just 18 in January this year, but their aggregate value skyrocketed from just about $780 million to about $3.10 billion.

January saw a slight decline in whole-company and minority-stake deals — 32, compared with 38 in the year-ago period — but the combined value of deals rose slightly from $5.19 billion to $5.37 billion year over year.

The largest asset deal announced in the month and in the year so far was Brazilian company 3R Potiguar SA's $1.39 billion purchase of the Potiguar cluster from integrated oil and gas giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA - Petrobras. The assets under the sale include 22 oil and gas fields.

Continental Resources Inc.'s buyout of Powder River Basin oil and gas assets from Chesapeake Energy Corp. for $450 million is the second-largest asset deal in January. Chesapeake Energy said it plans to use the proceeds to fund some of the acquisition of Chief Oil & Gas LLC unit Chief E&D Holdings LP by Chesapeake Energy's subsidiary Chesapeake Appalachia LLC. Chesapeake Appalachia will buy Chief E&D along with assets of Tug Hill Inc., in a deal filed separately, for a combined total of approximately $2.65 billion.

Enterprise Products Partners LP's acquisition of Navitas Midstream Partners LLC for about $3.25 billion was the biggest whole-company and minority-stake deal announced in January. Navitas Midstream's assets augment Enterprise's NGL presence in the Delaware Basin, according to a Feb. 17 news release.

No other whole-company and minority-stake deal in January breached $1 billion in transaction value. The second-largest deal, Earthstone Energy Inc. snapping up Bighorn Permian Resources LLC, sits at $860 million.