(Reuters) – The consolidation wave in the U.S. energy sector that triggered $250 billion worth of deals in 2023 has stretched into this year, as companies look for opportunities to deploy their cash hoard and boost their oil and gas reserves.

The total value of deals in January and February hit the highest level since the first quarter of 2017 when $68 billion worth of deals were announced, and is also more than double that announced in the first quarter of 2023. Deals involving U.S. shale firms represented more than 80% of the total value, analytics firm Enverus has said.

In 2023, some 39 private companies were acquired by public companies.

Below is a list of major deals in the U.S. oil and gas sector so far this year:

Announcement Target Acquirer Deal value Deal Closing

date (in $) type date

June 27 SM

Some assets of Energy and 2.55 bln Cash September

XCL Resources Northern Oil , 2024

and Gas

June 14

Stake in Unit of 1.28 bln Cash Closed

Rockies Express Tallgrass

Pipeline Energy

June 12 Matador 1.91 bln Cash Q3, 2024

Unit of Resources

Ameredev II

June 10 Noble Corp 1.59 bln Cash and Q1, 2025

Diamond stock

Offshore

Drilling

May 29 ConocoPhillips 22.5 bln All-stoc Q4, 2024

Marathon Oil k

May 28 WTG Energy 3.25 bln Cash and Q3, 2024

Midstream Transfer stock

May 16 Crescent 2.1 bln Cash and End of Q3,

SilverBow Energy stock 2024

Resources

April 2 SLB 7.8 bln All-stoc End of

ChampionX k 2024

March 11 EQT Corp 5.5 bln All-stoc Q4, 2024

Equitrans k

Midstream

February 21 Chord Energy 3.84 bln Cash and Mid 2024

Enerplus Corp stock

February 12 Diamondback 26 bln Cash and Q4, 2024

Endeavor Energy Energy stock

January 22 Sunoco 7.3 bln All-stoc Deal

NuStar Energy k closed

January 15 Talos Energy 1.29 bln Cash and Deal

QuarterNorth stock closed

Energy

January 11 Chesapeake 7.4 bln All-stoc Second

Southwestern Energy k half, 2024

Energy

January 7 California 2.1 bln All-stoc Second

Aera Energy Resources k half, 2024

January 4 APA Corp 4.5 bln All-stoc Deal

Callon k closed

Petroleum

Following are some of the biggest deals which were announced in 2023:

Announcement Target Acquirer Deal Deal Closing

date value (in type date

$)

May 14 ONEOK 18.8 bln Cash and Deal

Magellan stock closed

Midstream

Partners

October 11 Exxon 59.5 bln All-stoc Deal

Pioneer Mobil k closed

Natural

Resources

October 24 Chevron 53 bln All-stoc Timeline

Hess Corp k delayed

December 11 Occidental 12 bln Cash and Expected

CrownRock Petroleum stock

by

August

This graphic excludes the ConocoPhillips-Marathon Oil, Noble-Diamond Offshore, Matador-Ameredev, REX-Tallgrass and SM-XCL deals.

(Compiled by Mrinalika Roy, Sourasis Bose, Tanay Dhumal, Vallari Srivastava and Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

---