EnergyCents

Upstream M&A activity has seemed to focus on the Permian Basin over the past 18 months as operators sought entry and/or consolidation opportunities in North America’s most active oil growth play. What options are left for investors to easily and cheaply take over oil-weighted Permian pure-plays? Our experts discuss.

Oil and gas operators showed renewed confidence in 2018 as prices rose through September. Large North American E&P peer group data revealed share repurchases and dividend increases. But, did plunging oil prices in Q4 derail investment plans for 2019? Dan Pratt and Andrew Byrne from our companies and transactions team join the podcast to discuss the outlook for North American mergers and acquisition activities.

2018 was quite an interesting year for the oil and gas sector. In 2018, the US became the world’s top oil producer—in part to the boom we continue to see in the Permian. Upstream experts, Reed Olmstead and David Vaucher join the podcast to interpret recent oil news and preview what might be ahead for 2019. Find more energy expert insights at www.ihsmarkit.com/energyblog.

Upstream spending in the Middle East looks like it will continue to grow in the coming years. In this episode of Upstream in Perspective, Aje Singh Rihel from our upstream cost and technology team joins the podcast to discuss some of the cost and spending trends in the Middle East.

The transition toward a lower-carbon energy world puts traditional fossil-fuel based producers under growing pressure from shareholders and the general public. Chris DeLucia joins this episode to share how upstream oil and gas players around the world have responded.

Keith King offers some well analysis on the Atlantic Margin basins as Tullow and Chariot are poised to deliver key commercial tests offshore Namibia. What are initial results and what does it mean for the future of the Southwest African Coastal Basin? We discuss in this episode.

The 2014–17 downcycle has taken a toll especially on some producer governments that continue to struggle with its legacy. Many measures taken helped manage this near-term crisis, but with various degrees of pain to host governments. Our above-ground risk team explores this vulnerability to understand where countries have made changes to economic policy, political frameworks and hydrocarbon policies that have the potential to better insulate them against future price shocks. Our above-ground risk experts discuss on today’s episode.

For much of the oil and gas industry’s history, bigger was unquestionably better. But that truism has been displaced by a push towards specialization. Where companies once strived for breadth, in technologies and geography, they now compete against each other in narrower competitive bands in pursuit of a deeper, if more limited, set of skills to distinguish themselves. Our experts discuss on today’s episode.

What's the potential for capital investments in Latin America in the coming years? Carlos Rocha provides us with an overview of the region and how he expects it to fit into the global oil markets through 2030.

Decreased drilling in 2017 yielded the lowest discovery rate since the 1950s. But short-cycle opportunities could still be an option for some operators. What does previous E&P activity tell us about the future of exploration? Keith King shares his thoughts in today’s episode of Upstream in Perspective.