Energy M&A: The boom is back

It was a crazy week for North American energy M&A, with at least five billion-dollar deals I noticed in passing:

• Apache buys Devon's Gulf of Mexico assets for $1.05bn ("an amount that is about $250 million more than some analysts had expected")


• Apache buys Mariner Energy (also Gulf-focused) for $2.7bn


• ConocoPhillips sells its 9% stake in Syncrude Canada to Sinopec for $4.65bn


• Atlas and Reliance form $1.7bn Marcellus shale JV


• Mirant and RRI merge to form $3.1bn independent power generator

This level of activity (and in at least one case level of valuation) seems to signal that energy producers are viewing the global economic outlook positively, and are eager to jump on opportunities before asset prices catch up. With the benefit of hindsight we can say it would have been better to move earlier, but that is perhaps unfair...