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

• The Next Megamerger: Chesapeake and Southwestern

• Oklahoma Judge Orders Teardown of Wind Farm

• Upcoming Oil and Gas Events

• Tweet of the Day

The Next Megamerger: Chesapeake and Southwestern

The megamerger era in oil and gas just got its latest entry.

Chesapeake and Southwestern are in talks to merge, per a report in the WSJ.

The resulting company will be worth $17 billion.

It will be the largest gas producer in the country.

A bet on LNG exports

Chesapeake has bet big on LNG production and exports.

By tying up with Southwestern, it would more than double its output.

Chesapeake pumps 3.4 billion cu ft per day.

Southwestern pumps 4 billion cu ft.

Combined, the two would overtake EQT as the top gas producer in the U.S.

It’s looking like another strong year for mergers and acquisitions in the energy space.

Gas maybe this year’s focus—and not just for prospective buyers and targets.

Activists—and congressmen—are stepping up the pressure.

They claim LNG is incompatible with climate policies.

That should be fun to watch.

Consolidation is the new black

Last year saw several huge deals in the oil and gas space.

Exxon bought Pioneer.

Chevron followed with Hess Corp.

Oxy took over CrownRock.

The majors got much bigger in 2023.

It’s like they expect continued demand for oil and gas in the long run.

What an outrageous idea, right?

Now, Chesapeake and Southwestern may become the latest proof that oil and gas are going nowhere.

They’re not merging to pursue hydrogen production, after all.

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Oklahoma Judge Orders Teardown of Wind Farm

A judge in Oklahoma has ordered the dismantling of a 100-MW wind farm.

The ruling follows 11 years of litigation by the Osage Nation against the developers.

It is only the third such ruling against wind farms and the first for Oklahoma.

Continued trespassing

The Osage Nation holds the rights to all mineral resources on their land.

If someone wants to mine anything, they need to get a permit.

Which Enel, Osage Wind, and Freen Power Energy did not do.

All they got was leases from the surface owners to build their farms.

But to do that, they had to dig into the ground and remove rocks from it.

Which, per Judge Jennifer Choe-Graves, constitutes continued tress pass.

The developers didn’t even deny the trespass.

They admitted they had trespassed.

They just tried to argue it was a one-off trespass.

A $300-million bill and some hope

It will cost Enel and friends $300 million to remove the 84 turbines from Osage land.

They could have saved that money by getting the relevant permit.

Only they didn’t because they were too busy building the turbines.

Even though they were warned, they needed this permit.

Apparently, they didn’t care.

And why should they?

When wind is a favored industry for governments, not just in the U.S.

This status gives companies a sense of untouchability.

Too bad for them it turned out to be false.

It’s also too bad for such companies that communities across the country are waking up.

They’re not having massive wind turbines in their backyards. 

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: Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, Wildcatters Wednesday Luncheon, Oklahoma City, OK

• 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

• January 30- February 1: Onshore Wellsite Automation Congress, Houston, TX

Around the Global Patch

🇮🇳 India secures 13 hydrocarbon blocks with new contracts.
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan's gas gambit: a westward geopolitical shift.
🇷🇺 Iran's covert oil trade: hidden consequences.

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