What Chesapeake’s Chief Oil & Gas Acquisition Reveals about Upstream Dealmaking

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.