Locator: 49761B.
NFL standings: the NFL business model has really, really, really turned out well. Because of the mediocrity of so many teams in the NFL we are going into the last week of the regular season:
- the brackets have not yet been completed; and,
- there seems to be no sure thing.
This means fans will still stay tuned in to the very end of the season.
***************************
Back to the Bakken
WTI: $58.14.
New wells reporting:
- Tuesday, December 30, 2025: 72 for the month, 195 for the quarter, 769 for the year,
- 41551, conf, XTO Energy, HBU Baptiste Federal 34X-11B,
- 41414, conf, Slawson, Atlas 3-21-16H,
- Monday, December 29, 2025: 70 for the month, 193 for the quarter, 767 for the year,
- 41552, conf, XTO Energy, HBU Baptiste Federal 34X-11G,
- 40764, conf, Enerplus, Olson 147-97-34-27-6H,
- Sunday, December 28, 2025: 68 for the month, 191 for the quarter, 774 for the year,
- 41553, conf, XTO Energy, HBU Baptiste Federal 34X-11C,
- 40958, conf, Devon Energy, Grand National 34-36F 5H,
- 40765, conf, Enerplus, Olson 147-97-34-27-7H,
- Saturday, December 27, 2025: 65 for the month, 188 for the quarter, 771 for the year,
- 41554, conf, XTO Energy, HBU Baptiste Federal 34X-11H,
- 40784, conf, Enerplus Olson 147-97-34-27-9H-ELL,
- 40769, conf, Enerplus, Olson 147-97-34-27-8H,
- 40723, conf, Devon Energy, Costanza 24-13 5TFH,
RBN Energy: oil and gas producers using M&A to double down on primary areas, fine-tune portfolios. Preview. Archived.
It’s not always easy — or sometimes even possible — to discern trends in upstream-sector M&A activity, but at least a couple of things seem clear as we begin the new year. One is that E&Ps continue to zero in on the production basins where they see the most promise, and to divest assets that aren’t core to their real focus. Another is that the ongoing ramp-up in LNG exports is spurring heightened interest among U.S. and overseas companies in acreage and production targeting that market. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss a few of the big-dollar upstream M&A deals that were unveiled in the past couple of months.
In Stayin’ Alive, our most recent roundup, we looked at the acquisitions that Crescent Energy, California Resources, Chord Energy and others were making to gain scale and expand their holdings in key production areas. More recently, in Take Me Home, Country Roads, we examined Antero Resources’ planned purchase of West Virginia E&P HG Energy (and divestiture of Antero’s Ohio assets), and, in Back in the Saddle, we reviewed U.K.-based Harbour Energy’s newly announced deal to buy LLOG Exploration, a Gulf of Mexico producer.
It’s already time for another roundup — the M&A keeps comin’. We’ll start with Baytex Energy and the $2.3 billion sale of its Eagle Ford assets, which is unusual in that the buyer’s name was not announced and remains under wraps. (That suggests the acquirer is privately held and backed by private equity.) The transaction, which was announced on November 12 and closed on December 19, is also an outlier in that Baytex said that when it releases its full-year 2025 results in early March it expects to record a “loss on disposition” of between $250 million and $350 million related to the sale. (A loss on deposition occurs when an asset is sold for less than its net book value — that is, its original cost minus accumulated depreciation.)
