The U.S. Oil and Gas Industry Remains in the Grip of Merger Mania

After more than $230 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. oil and gas industry in 2023, the M&A momentum continued in the first half of 2024, too, with tens of billions of dollars worth of new deals announced so far this year.   Last year, U.S. oil and gas exploration and production companies spent as much as $234 billion on M&As—the highest such spend in real dollar terms since 2012, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in an analysis in March.   The deal-making of the past year marks a…