Oil majors BP and Shell have occupied the top spots on opposite ends of Rystad Energy's new M&A ranking for the oil and gas sector.

Oil majors BP and Shell have occupied the top spots on opposite ends of Rystad Energy’s new M&A ranking for the oil and gas sector.

Released on Thursday, the ranking highlights the share of resources traded globally from 2015 through July 2019. According to the analysis, BP has seen the most resource growth from M&A across all supply segments, adding nearly 6.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe). On the sell side, Shell tops the list “by a wide margin”, Rystad notes.

Shell has shed almost 11 billion boe since 2015, excluding the effect of the company’s 2015 acquisition of BG Group, Rystad highlighted.

“The majority of BP’s shale and tight oil resource growth in recent years was attained through the acquisition of BHP’s upstream assets in the United States last year,” Ilka Haarmann, an analyst on Rystad Energy’s upstream team, said in a company statement.

“On the other side of the spectrum, Shell divested significant resources from all supply segments after it acquired BG in 2015,” Haarmann added.

Rystad’s M&A ranking excluded the Wintershall-DEA merger, the BG acquisition by Shell, the Anadarko acquisition by Occidental and the related Africa deal by Occidental and Total. Iraq NOC and ADNOC were also excluded.

Total Deal Value

In the first half of 2019, the total deal value “sky-rocketed” thanks to Occidental’s $57 billion acquisition of Anadarko, Rystad noted. Excluding this deal, which Rystad labeled a “clear outlier”, the average monthly deal value was $7 billion, according to Rystad. This figure was down 37.5 percent from the corresponding period last year, Rystad analysis showed.

“M&A activity is like a finger on the pulse of the upstream industry and in recent months we have seen relatively low-value deals. The average tally pales in comparison to recent years,” Haarmann stated.

Rystad describes itself as an independent energy research and business intelligence company. The company’s mission is to help people analyze historical, present and future activities in the energy sector, according to its website.

On Wednesday, Rigzone reported that U.S. upstream M&A activity maintained its momentum in the third quarter.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com