2025-05-20 12:25

May 20 (Reuters) - Dealmaking in the U.S. oil patch has slowed to a crawl in 2025, with the activity expected to stay muted for the rest of the year, as some prolific buyers focus on squeezing out value from their past acquisitions, while others curb their appetite for takeovers due to weak oil prices and trade uncertainty. Oil companies have spent $17 billion on acquisitions in the last three months, a steep fall from the height of dealmaking in the third quarter of 2023, where they splurged $144 billion on M&A. Sign up here. Benchmark U.S. crude recently slid to about $55 a barrel from about $78 in January, just before President Donald Trump took office, dragged down by rising OPEC+ output and renewed trade tensions. "We're in a period right now where there's so much noise and volatility that not a lot gets done," Diamondback Energy CFO Kaes Van't Hof said on a recent earnings call. "Anything that we would look at would have to be extremely cheap, and I just don't think we're there yet today." Investor caution also stems from concerns over Trump's trade policies. Despite his push to boost U.S. drilling, trade tensions could dampen growth and demand. "(Deal) activity is likely to stay muted for the rest of 1H25 but there could be a pickup in the back half of the year, particularly if trade deals are announced that reduce the odds of a U.S. recession," said Andrew Dittmar, principal analyst at Enverus The challenge is finding the right fit as investors do not want size for size's sake but credible in-field operational synergies, Dittmar added. Most premium assets in the Permian - North America's top shale play - have also been snapped up during the M&A frenzy, leaving behind mostly those acreages that are not highly viable in the current low oil-price scenario. That's making dealmaking even harder, as buyers tread carefully to avoid overpaying for second-tier assets. "Nobody wants to dilute their portfolio with acreage out on the fringe of the play," said Raoul LeBlanc, VP at S&P Global Commodity Insights. BIG PLAYERS STAY CAUTIOUS Even large players are showing restraint. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab, fresh off its $60 billion Pioneer deal, is focused on value creation. "One plus one has to equal three," CEO Darren Woods said during a recent earnings call, stressing any deal must create outsized value. Others are still digesting recent purchases. "We've obviously been very busy over the last year and a half with Endeavor and Double Eagle," Van't Hof said, referring to two major Permian Basin buys. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-oil-ma-slide-2023-highs-buyers-focus-value-over-volume-2025-05-20/

2025-05-20 12:11

DUBAI, May 20 (Reuters) - Two deals between U.S. energy firms and the Iraqi Kurdistan government announced on Tuesday are "null and void" as they lack federal approval, Baghdad's oil ministry said. Iraqi Kurdistan's P.M. Masrour Barzani in a speech in Washington announced the signing of two deals worth $110 billion over their lifetimes with U.S. firms HKN Energy and WesternZagros. Sign up here. They had been flagged by an adviser in a social media post a day earlier. The deals involve the development of the Miran and Topkhana-Kurdamir gas fields in Sulaymaniya. "These contracts are null and void. Natural resources belong to all Iraqis, and any agreement to invest them must be made through the federal government, not in defiance of the law and the constitution," Iraq's oil ministry said. In a ruling issued in 2022, Iraq's federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude oil supplies. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-energy-firm-deals-with-iraqi-kurdistan-null-void-baghdad-says-2025-05-20/

2025-05-20 12:06

(Reuters) May 20 - The pound held steady against the dollar on Tuesday but stayed close to a near three-week high hit on Monday after Britain agreed a major trade and defence reset with the European Union. At 1138 GMT, the pound was flat against the dollar at $1.33640 , having earlier risen around 0.25%. Sign up here. The pound hit $1.34030 on Monday, its highest level since April 30. "Yesterday’s big news in terms of the new UK-EU deal was a mild positive for sterling, although we don’t think it moves the needle substantially on growth given the relatively small size of the animal livestock and border crossing arrangements that have been made," said Chris Turner, head of FX strategy at ING. The dollar slipped again on Tuesday as traders focused on the U.S. economy and considered news that upcoming U.S.-Japan talks could include discussions on foreign exchange and avoiding volatility. Markets are also digesting comments from Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill who said on Tuesday that the BoE's pace of interest rate cuts had been too fast. Pill flagged still strong wage pressures on inflation, but said his vote this month to keep borrowing costs on hold was likely to prove "a skip" not a halt. "In the G10 space, interest rates are quite supportive for the UK because Bank of England policy is more aligned with Fed policy than it is with ECB policy so that's helping sterling," said ING's Turner. The hawkish tone from Pill is also relatively supportive, he said. The BoE cut the bank rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.25% on May 8 and traders are betting it will deliver another 25 bps cut at its next meeting in June . After upbeat GDP data last week boosted the pound, traders are now looking ahead to UK consumer price index readings due on Wednesday. The pound was flat against the euro at 0.8415. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/sterling-steady-against-dollar-traders-digest-uk-eu-reset-deal-2025-05-20/

2025-05-20 12:05

MILAN, May 20 (Reuters) - Italian electricity bills will include additional costs due to be imposed on utilities to secure licence extensions, Italy's largest power provider, Enel (ENEI.MI) , opens new tab, said on Tuesday. The government last year extended electricity distribution licences, which were due to expire in 2030, by up to 20 years, but in return asked utilities to make a one-off payment to the state and present additional investment plans for grid upgrades. Sign up here. The government also said it might use some of the proceeds from utilities to reduce the cost of energy bills, but there has been no action on this so far. Enel, in responses sent to investors ahead of its annual shareholders meeting on May 22, said the one-off payment and the additional grid investments would both be factored into domestic energy bills. The government has not yet said exactly when it will impose the one-off payment. Last year, Italy's average electricity price reached 109 euros ($122.61) per megawatt hour, nearly double that in France, prompting calls from both industrial and retail customers for action to reduce power bills. Government officials are in discussions with the utilities to finalise their investment plans and negotiate the one-off payments. In March, Italian energy authority ARERA said the payments and investment plans required from utilities would increase their regulated asset base (RAB), granting them an annual return of 6.5%. Enel is Italy's leading operator on power distribution, while regional utilities, such as ACEA (ACE.MI) , opens new tab and A2A (A2.MI) , opens new tab, manage smaller segments of the network. ($1 = 0.8890 euros) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/italian-electricity-bills-include-additional-costs-licences-enel-says-2025-05-20/

2025-05-20 11:52

NEW DELHI, May 20 (Reuters) - India's infrastructure output (ININFR=ECI) , opens new tab grew 0.5% year-on-year in April, its slowest pace in eight months, dragged by weakness in crude oil and refinery products, government data showed on Tuesday. The index, which tracks activity across eight sectors and makes up 40% of the country's industrial production, grew at a revised 4.6% in March, compared to the initial estimate of 3.8%. Sign up here. Crude oil output dropped 2.8% year-on-year in April, against a 1.9% drop in March, while natural gas production declined 0.4%, compared with a 12.7% drop in March. Cement output rose 6.7% in April, compared to a revised 12.2% increase in March, while steel production climbed 3% against a revised 9.3% advance a month earlier. Fertilizer production fell 4.2% compared with growth of 8.8% in the prior month, while coal production gained 3.5% year-on-year compared to 1.6% in March. Electricity generation was up 1% in April, against a revised 7.5% increase in the prior month, while refinery products dropped 4.5%, compared with 0.2% the month before. Core sector output rose 6.9% in April, 2024 and 4.5% in the fiscal year 2024-25. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-infrastructure-output-rises-05-on-year-april-2025-05-20/

2025-05-20 11:45

TANGERANG, Indonesia, May 20 (Reuters) - U.S. oil major Chevron (CVX.N) , opens new tab is interested in exploring and developing oil and gas assets in Indonesia with sizable reserves, Djoko Siswanto, chairman of its upstream oil and gas regulator SKK Migas, said on Tuesday. Chevron is seeking blocks with potential reserves of around 15 trillion cubic feet of gas, Djoko said, adding that the company is currently in an early evaluation of some of those potential assets. Sign up here. Indonesia will offer blocks in Bali or other parts of eastern Indonesia. "We regularly engage with SKK Migas. However, as per our long-standing policy, we do not discuss the details of these engagements," Cameron Van Ast, a spokesperson for Chevron Asia Pacific, told Reuters by email, without providing further details. Chevron exited Indonesia in 2023 when it divested its stakes in Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) after a change in the facility's design stalled development. Located in the Makassar Strait off the island of Borneo, IDD consists of two projects, Bangka and Gendalo-Gehem, with combined recoverable gas resources of nearly 3 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-seeks-big-oil-gas-blocks-indonesia-regulator-says-2025-05-20/