Energy majors’ strategies show signs of convergence

While US megadeals may not be repeated on the other side of the Atlantic, there is now greater common ground between European and US energy companies

The two big recent US oil and gas mergers—ExxonMobil buying Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron acquiring Hess—have raised the question of European consolidation. But whispers of a BP and Shell tie-up, or any large-scale upstream M&A across the pond, are likely to remain sotto voce given Europe’s approach to fossil fuels. But European and US energy majors’ strategies are not as far apart as once thought, and are actually coming closer together. From the US side, there has been a growing focus on cleaner technologies even amid the strong oil and gas M&A headlines, while from the European side there has been a pullback from renewables given the importance of hydrocarbons for investor