When four young oil and gas bucks launched a small midstream startup in 2014, all eight eyeballs were focused on setting up camp in the Permian Delaware. To say a lot has changed since then, especially in the last five years, would be a gross understatement when describing Fort Worth-based Brazos Midstream. ...

Less than a month ago, Dallas-based San Mateo Midstream, a joint venture between Matador Resources (51%) and Five Point Infrastructure (49%), inked a $752 million deal to make Cardinal Midstream Partners its own. A slick move indeed for Matador, which happens to be the anchor customer of San Mateo and—at the time—also happened to have other Delaware plans in store....

Houston-based E&Ps Magnolia Oil & Gas and Wildfire Energy may well be on tenterhooks awaiting a thumbs-up for the former to acquire the latter. The Eagle Ford players are said to have been in talks since May with Magnolia emerging the front-runner in the bid process. But the potential $4 billion deal faces a hurdle or two to be cleared before Magnolia can lay claim to the third largest acquisition of 2026....

In a time of war, the U.S. has now become the world’s largest crude oil exporter, surfing a wave of 50% higher prices depending on the day. Meanwhile in the Permian, there’s an infrastructure crisis preventing record volumes of natural gas to reach demand centers and Gulf Coast export markets when gas has never been needed most. ...