Enverus Intelligence Research said Wednesday M&A activity in second quarter fell to $9.1 billion – making it the third-lowest quarter since 2020. Enverus’ report on mergers and acquisitions highlights “a quarter in which commodity volatility temporarily throttled deal flow even as competition for core Permian inventory reached record intensity.” The total marks declines of 76 percent from first quarter and 33 percent from 2025Q2.
More than 40 percent of 2Q value came from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s New Mexico lease sale in Delaware Basin that brought in a record of more than $4 billion. Devon Energy’s acquisition in the BLM sale of $2.6 billion was the top deal of the quarter, and Matador Resources’ bid of $1.1 million was the fourth largest.
Analyst Andrew Dittmar said, “Higher crude is supercharging both the private sellers coming to market and public company appetite for inventory. We expect a much busier second half with private companies as the primary source of assets, and public buyers and ABS (asset-backed security) capital as the two active bidding groups.”