While not exactly your grand-pappy’s farm pond, the fishing hole stocked with oil and gas assets for catch has been jumping with activity over the last 10 days. As the year winds down following the mega mergers of 2023 and ‘24, larger producers continue slashing debt with the sale of non-core assets as smaller producers reel them in to invigorate their own growth strategy. But aside from the big player cast-offs, other producers are selling off, swapping, or snapping up assets before the calendar year flips a page. Some are simply keeping an eagle’s eye on what they see as potential acquisition targets that lie ahead.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest of the eager anglers, Houston-based Coterra Energy, which has picked up Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources for a combined $3.95 billion. The separate Permian deals add 49,000 contiguous acres in Lea County, N.M., to the company’s 296,000 net acres, 400-550 net Permian locations to its decade-long inventory, and 125 miles of pipeline.

Houston-based, PE-backed Ridgemar Energy, one of the top remaining private oil producers in the Eagle Ford, looks to fetch $1+ billion for assets that include 70,000 net acres and an estimated 27 MBOED in 2025.

Denver-based Ovintiv, which operates in Canada’s Montney oil window, the Uinta, Anadarko, and Permian, has issued a big statement with a $2.8 billion Montney acquisition and the sale of its Uinta Basin assets to FourPoint Resources. The $2 billion Uinta deal includes 126,000 net acres of largely undeveloped land and 29 MBPD. Ovintiv’s divestiture of its Permian assets is currently pending.

And finally, Houston’s Surge Energy looks to hook a big one in the Permian Midland that starts with writing a $1 billion check as bait.