While Bill Gates sets to build an artificial sun to power the world, and a Texas family raffles off untapped mineral rights on its land at $4 per ticket, Reese Energy Consulting is following the latest news from Houston-based ConocoPhillips (COP). The company has hardly been shy about slashing $5 billion in debt after acquiring Marathon Oil in 2024 in an all-stock deal valued at $22.5 billion. ...

What a year it’s been less than two months into 2026 for oil and gas mergers, asset divestitures, and acquisitions. While buyer demand remains strong for shale opportunities, especially in the luxe-priced Permian, it’s driven more producers to seek out opportunities in other basins, including explorations of new frontiers outside the U.S. ...

In South Texas—Land of the Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk—high-quality, undrilled inventory is about as scarce as a hare with horns. M&A competition for prime assets here is rubber band tight as producers look outside the Permian for diversity, cost efficiencies, and proximity to Gulf Coast export facilities....

Among the largest privately held oil and gas companies today, few can claim witness to the Dust Bowl, fatal undoing of Bonnie and Clyde, and peak of the Great Depression. The year was 1934 when H.L. Hunt founded Hunt Oil after major discoveries in East Texas. ...