Several billion-dollar deal announcements drove a surge in M&A activity in the oil and gas sector in May.

Oil and gas companies announced 25 whole-company and minority-stake deals in May with a combined known value of $34.18 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. In comparison, 28 deals were announced in May 2023 with a known aggregate value of $32.80 billion.

Second-quarter 2024 deals were already worth $46.60 billion as of June 5, surpassing the $43.82 billion recorded for the whole three-month period in 2023.

There were 22 asset transactions in May 2024 with a known value of $2.91 billion across 11 deals, a decrease from the $4.55 billion recorded from 20 deals in the same month a year ago.

Largest whole-company and minority-stake deals

There were four multibillion-dollar deals in May, with several companies seeking to expand their presence in the Permian Basin.

ConocoPhillips' $22.5 billion planned acquisition of Marathon Oil Corp. was the largest transaction announced for the month. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to stockholder approval and regulatory clearances.

The second largest was Energy Transfer LP's $3.25 billion deal to buy WTG Midstream LLC. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

– Use our Transactions Statistics page to run a custom screen of M&A transactions. – Visit our M&A Replay page to view more data on other M&A deals.

Asset deals

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.'s $1.15 billion deal to acquire a 10% stake in the Area 4 concession of the Rovuma basin in Mozambique from Galp Energia SGPS SA was the only billion-dollar asset acquisition in May. The transaction is expected to close later this year.