On Jan. 25, Chesapeake Energy flipped the script on its story. In a single move, the company announced the purchase of private Marcellus operator Chief Oil & Gas alongside an exit from the Powder River Basin, ultimately refocusing its portfolio mainly on shale gas after years spent trying to diversify into oil.

“My number one takeaway from these deals is that it’s still a great time to be a buyer in the upstream A&D space,” Andrew Dittmar, director at Enverus, told Hart Energy.

The current upstream M&A cycle has continued to churn out a steady stream of deals for several years now. However, with commodity prices coming up, Dittmar noted the possibility of deal values starting to creep up making it a bit of a stretch for buyers.

“But based on what we saw from Chesapeake and the numbers on this deal, it’s still a great time to be a buyer,” he said of the Chief acquisition.

Dittmar recently joined Hart Energy’s Emily Patsy for a discussion on Chesapeake’s recent dealmaking to share his analysis and outlook for the upstream M&A market. He also spoke about the strategy behind Chesapeake holding onto its shale oil assets in the Eagle Ford.

Jump to a topic:

  • Main takeaway (0:40)
  • The importance of scale (1:50)
  • Chesapeake’s Eagle Ford position (4:05)
  • Running room for upstream M&A (7:20)
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