美国第二季度上游并购活动面临挑战

据美国钻井网站2022年7月29日报道，总的说来，由于大宗商品和股票市场都出现了波动，对于谈判并购交易来说，今年第二季度是一个具有挑战性的季度。

这是能源咨询公司Enverus Intelligence Research（EIR）在其对2022年第二季度美国上游并购活动的总结报告中指出的，该报告强调，尽管存在挑战，但仍有大约120亿美元的并购交易，“因为许多私募股权（PE）公司将其投资引入市场，希望在高油价和高天然气价格中获利”。  

根据EIR公布的数据，私募股权卖家约占第二季度美国并购交易价值的80%。其中二叠纪盆地在第二季度并购交易中贡献了55亿美元，占总金额的46%。多区域交易排名第二，32亿美元，占总金额的27%，落基山脉排名第三，14亿美元，占总金额的12%。

数据显示，美国第一季度并购活动的总交易价值为147亿美元，其中， 落基山脉在本季度贡献了最多的资金，72亿美元，二叠纪盆地第二，43亿美元，东部地区第三，28亿美元。根据数据，过去12个季度中最大的季度并购交易价值是在2021年第二季度，为348亿美元，而最低的是在2020年第一季度，为6亿美元。 

EIR主管安德鲁·迪特马尔在一份公司声明中称：“正如预期的那样，大宗商品价格的飙升暂时阻碍了上游并购交易活动，因为买家和卖家在资产价值上存在分歧。”

“不过，高昂的并购交易价格也促使私人股本公司争相试水并购。虽然并非所有进入市场的公司都获得了他们认为合适的报价，但这足以推动适度活跃的上游并购交易活动。”迪特马尔在声明中补充道。

迪特马尔说：“多年来，公开市场一直保持着一种趋势，即基本上不允许私营勘探与生产企业进行传统的首次公开募股，这使得并购活动成为主要的退出途径。“上市公司有收购私人勘探开发公司的意愿，但上市公司需要保持这些交易的估值与市场对其股票的定价一致或低于市场对其股票的定价。由于勘探开发股票估值仍不高，在许多情况下，可能没有太多提高报价的空间。”迪特马尔如是说。

今年4月份，Enverus指出，美国上游并购活动在今年开局强劲，并补充说，今年1月的60亿美元并购交易是5年来最强劲的并购市场启动。  

迪特马尔当时在一份公司声明中表示：“所有使上游并购交易在2021年保持弹性的因素都延续到了新的一年。”

这包括上市公司对库存的需求、现成的私人卖家和优惠的定价。然而，能源价格波动导致3月份几乎所有上游并购交易陷入停滞，迪特马尔在声明中补充道。

今年2月底以来，原油价格多年来首次突破每桶100美元大关。 

李峻 编译自 美国钻井网站

原文如下：

Q2 Challenging for USA Upstream Merger Activity

Overall, Q2 was a challenging quarter for negotiating deals as volatility roiled both commodity and equity markets.

That’s what Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR) stated in its summary of 2Q 2022 U.S. upstream M&A activity, which highlighted that, despite the challenge, about $12 billion was transacted “as numerous private equity (PE) firms brought their investments to market looking to cash in on high oil and gas prices”.

According to EIR, PE sellers accounted for about 80 percent of the quarter’s deal value. A chart showing U.S. deal value by region over the past 12 quarters, which was included in the summary, showed that the Permian contributed $5.5 billion, or 46 percent of the total, in Q2. Multi-region deals came in second with $3.2 billion, or 27 percent of the total, while the Rockies came in third with $1.4 billion, or 12 percent of the total, according to the chart.

Q1 saw a total deal value of $14.7 billion, the chart highlighted. The Rockies contributed the largest amount during the quarter with $7.2 billion, the Permian was second with $4.3 billion, and the Eastern region was third with $2.8 billion, the chart outlined. The largest quarterly deal value during the past 12 quarters came in 2Q 2021 at $34.8 billion, while the lowest was in 1Q 2020 at 0.6 billion, according to the chart.

“As anticipated, the spike in commodity prices that followed the war stalled M&A as buyers and sellers disagreed on the value of assets,” EIR Director Andrew Dittmar said in a company statement.

“High prices, though, also encouraged a rush by PE firms to test the waters for M&A. While not everyone that is going into the market is getting what they deem to be a suitable offer, enough are to drive modestly active upstream M&A,” Dittmar added in the statement.

“Public equity markets are retaining a multi-year trend of being essentially closed for private E&Ps to launch a traditional IPO … That leaves M&A as the main exit route. There is appetite on the public company side to buy out private E&Ps, but public companies need to keep the valuation paid on these deals in line or less than where the market is pricing their own stock. With E&P equity valuations still modest, in many cases there may not be much room to raise offer prices,” Dittmar went on to state.

Back in April, Enverus noted that U.S. upstream M&A opened strong in 2022, adding that the $6 billion transacted in January 2022 was the strongest M&A market launch in five years.

“All the factors that kept upstream deals resilient in 2021 carried over into the new year,” Dittmar said in a company statement at the time.

“That included a need for inventory by public companies, ready private sellers and favorable pricing. However, the volatility in energy prices,” Dittmar added in the statement.

Oil soared past $100 per barrel for the first time in years back in late February as Russian forces escalated a conflict with Ukraine.