Oilfield Services Giant SLB Buying Smaller Rival ChampionX for $8B
SLB (formerly Schlumberger) is the largest oilfield services (drilling and fracking) company in the world. It does a lot of work in the Marcellus/Utica. SLB announced yesterday a deal to buy a smaller rival, ChampionX, in an all-stock deal valued at $7.75 billion. ChampionX specializes in chemistry solutions (fracking fluids), artificial lift systems, and equipment and technologies that help companies drill for and produce oil and gas. Little did we know until we checked, but ChampionX has a major presence in the Marcellus/Utica region via supply chain vendors who sell its products and services. So this combination, which has national and international implications, also has the power to affect drilling and fracking here in the M-U.
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Summit Midstream Partners, LP, which owns midstream (pipeline) assets in a number of major plays across the country, including the Marcellus/Utica, announced on Friday the sale of the company’s Ohio Utica assets, including its Summit Midstream Utica, LLC subsidiary, which includes its approximately 36% interest in Ohio Gathering Company, approximately 38% interest in Ohio Condensate Company, and other wholly-owned Utica assets. The sale was made to a subsidiary of MPLX LP (i.e., MarkWest Energy) for $625 million in cash. Summit will no longer own Utica assets in Ohio, but the company WILL retain (for now) its Marcellus assets in West Virginia.
Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (and other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Last week, Diversified issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 update. Part of the update included an announcement that Diversified is acquiring financial partner Oaktree Capital Management’s interests in the companies’ JV assets in western Oklahoma, East Texas, and northwest Louisiana for a net purchase price of $386 million.
Yesterday, the big news broke that driller EQT Corporation is reuniting with pipeline company Equitrans Midstream (see 
Yesterday, EQT Corporation announced a deal to buy its former midstream division, now called Equitrans Midstream, for roughly $5.46 billion (see 
In early January, Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, two companies with major assets in the country’s two leading gas plays — the Marcellus/Utica and the Haynesville — announced an agreement to merge into one company (see 
In early January, Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, two companies with major assets in the country’s two leading gas plays — the Marcellus/Utica and the Haynesville — announced an agreement to merge into one company (see 
Epsilon Energy, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past year and a half, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas) and the Permian (Texas and New Mexico). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company typically does the drilling. Yesterday Epsilon announced closing on another Permian Basin acquisition.
Two really big (huge) pieces of news are coming from yesterday’s Equitrans Midstream fourth quarter and full-year 2023 update. The first bit of news is that Equitrans is actively considering a buyout offer. The company doesn’t use that exact language, but that’s what’s happening. This should come as no surprise, given the rumor mill on a potential Equitrans sale heated up last December (see 
According to sources whispering to reporters from Reuters, Occidental Petroleum is “exploring a sale of Western Midstream Partners,” a U.S. natural gas-focused pipeline operator that has a market value of close to $20 billion. Western Midstream responded to the news report by issuing a press release to say it is NOT engaged in any kind of sale process. But that’s a bit disingenuous as Occidental owns a controlling interest in the company. So if Oxy sells its interests, it is, in essence, selling the business.
In June 2016, Massachusetts-based Clean Energy Future broke ground on an $800 million, 940-megawatt Utica gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown (Trumbull County), OH (see 
DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions like the Haynesville. DTM issued its fourth quarter 2023 update last Friday. The Marcellus/Utica region (which they call Northeast in the report) received several prominent mentions during a conference call with analysts. Also of note were comments by DT CEO David Slater, who said he’s positioning the company to take advantage of “bolt-on” opportunities in the regions where they operate. Meaning he’s on the lookout for mergers and acquisitions.