Good morning, here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Big Oil’s $250-Billion Shopping Spree Year

• Millionaire of the Week: J. Larry Nichols

• Upcoming Oil and Gas Events

• Tweet of the Day

Big Oil’s $250-Billion Shopping Spree Year

Large oil producers last year got even larger.

Mergers and acquisitions worth $250 billion marked the year.

And made the industry stronger for whatever comes next.

All eyes on the Permian

Exxon bought Pioneer Natural Resources for close to $60 billion.

Chevron followed with the takeover of Hess Corp. for $53 billion.

Occidental then went and bought CrownRock for $12 billion.

The three deals together topped $120 billion.

And they have one thing in common: a larger footprint in the Permian.

Add Conoco, which made two large Permian acquisitions a couple of years ago, and you get four companies controlling 58% of Permian production.

In case you needed any more proof that this is where the shale action is.

And industry execs expect even more acquisitions next year.

Time to see what’s left to buy.

Control over production growth

 "A select few companies will determine whether (production) growth will be strong, more stable or somewhere in between."

That’s the comment a Wood Mac senior analyst made about the latest trend.

It is a very important comment.

And it’s one the current federal government might not like very much.

The fewer players there are in the shale patch, the greater their say over total production.

Which means the lesser the say of that same government.

Governments don’t like that, especially when their strategic petroleum reserve sits empty.

Big Oil just got a lot bigger—and stronger, too.

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Millionaire of the Week: J. Larry Nichols

From law to oil

Oklahoma native John Larry Nichols founded Devon Energy back in 1970.

Like his father—and co-founder—Nichols did not start his professional life in the oilfield.

Nichols Senior was an accountant.

Nichols Junior worked in the legal system for years before switching to energy.

A successful switch

At the start, Devon Energy had no assets and a grand total of five employees.

By 1988, it had grown enough to go public.

And per Nichols himself, he didn’t even go into oil deliberately.

He simply chose to accept the offer his father made him.

As told by Nichols himself, he told his dad he would make more money from a career in law.

“Larry, I don’t really think you are worth that much,” his father responded.

Yet, as it turned out, Nichols ended up being worth a lot more.

His estimated net worth is some $58 million right now.

Another shale major

Devon Energy is one of the biggest independent players in the shale patch.

It had assets across the Eagle Ford, Anadarko, and the Delaware Basin.

The latter is seen by many as the most productive part of the Permian.

In 2021, Devon merged with WPX Energy and gave its name to the bigger company.

It’s probably just a matter of time before one of the supermajors snaps it up.

Along with its high-value assets and more than 600,000 bpd in production.

Upcoming Oil & Gas Events

• January 16: TIPRO/IPAA Leaders in Industry Luncheon, Petroleum Club of Houston, Houston, TX

• January 17: IPAA Private Capital Conference, The Post Oak at Uptown Houston, Houston, TX

• January 17-18: GO-WV Winter Meeting, Marriott Town Center Hotel, Charleston, WV

• January 18: Kansas Oil and Gas Day Legislative Reception, Kansas State Capital, Topeka, KS

• January 23-25: POWERGEN International, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans

Around the Global Patch

🇺🇸 Assessing the accuracy of 2023 energy forecasts.
🇨🇳 China's rare earth shift: impact on global tech.
🇬🇧 UK warship aids Guyana: solidarity display.

Tweet of the Day

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