Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. oil and gas industry reached $96 billion in 2019, largely due to the colossal takeover deal of Andarko Petroleum by Occidental Petroleum Corp., which was valued at $57 billion, according to data analytics company Enverus.
In what has been hailed the largest deal of the decade, Berkshire Hathaway–backed Occidental beat out Chevron Corp. in the competitive bidding process for Andarko, topping its $33 billion offer. Without that deal, the value of oil and gas deals in the United States would have been only $39.1 billion, less than half the amount of the previous year’s $85 billion.
Other deals of 2019 paled in comparison to the Andarko acquisition, and included a $5.6 billion purchase by Hilcorp Energy, a $2.74 billion deal by Callon Petroleum, a $2.5 billion purchase by WPX Energy and a $2.27 billion acquisition by Parsley Energy.
In the first half of 2019, oil and gas M&A deals
