US shale patch dealmaking stays sluggish

Several prominent deals have helped partially salvage M&A activity, but conditions still look gloomy

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on M&A activity in the US shale sector. The pace of deal-making fell to its lowest level in ten years across the first half of 2020 as the WTI price went negative for the first time in history and global energy demand nosedived. Deal-making recovered sharply in Q3 as several high-profile corporate moves helped buck the downward trend. Chevron completed a $13bn acquisition of US independent Noble Energy in July, the fourth-largest upstream deal in the last five years. The transaction represented over 60pc of the total value of M&A completed across the quarter.   Noble’s Eastern Mediterranean portfolio was a core motivation for the mer