Oil and fuel PE deal depend fell 60% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 to just 16 offers, price $3.4 billion, as investor confidence was hit amid ongoing price volatility.
Of the offers made, just three were new platform buyouts, according to PitchBook’s Q2 2026 Oil & Gas Report.
The relaxation were secondary buyouts, tuck-ins or carveouts, with corporations managing present holdings rather than deploying recent capital.
According to the report, the provide shock induced by the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz has drawn OECD authorities oil inventories down by 163 million barrels to their lowest degree since 1990.
At the same time, the UAE ended its OPEC and OPEC+ membership on May 1. Now, a widening Red Sea battle threatens the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline—routes carrying crude and LNG into the Mediterranean.
The largest deal was CPP Investments’ $1.2 billion growth investment in Texas-based fuel and LNG platform Caturus.
Paris-headquartered Antin Infrastructure Partners secured the third-largest spot on a desk of North American-dominated transactions, with its $164.5 million acquisition of Texas-based Sapphire Gas Solutions, purchased from Apollo funds through Flagship Fund V.
The $39 billion in M&A deal worth marked a 20.3% QoQ drop. On an annualised foundation, 2026 deal worth is monitoring 10% forward of 2025, suggesting consolidation exercise is holding regular, if not accelerating.
The three largest M&A transactions of the quarter—Shell’s $16.4 billion buy of ARC Resources, GFL Environmental’s $4.6 billion acquisition of Secure Energy Services, and Keyera’s $3.9 billion buy of Plains Midstream Canada—all concerned firms headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.
European property drew only a handful of smaller offers: a $108.3 million oilfield companies buyout of Motortech, a $212.6 million exit from Enhanced Drilling and a $130.4 million downstream exit from ISAB.
Shell’s April acquisition of ARC Resources added 1.5 million web acres adjoining to its present Groundbirch asset, which feeds LNG Canada, the Pacific coast export terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney advised the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Sep. 17 that Canada could contribute LNG and hydrogen “at large scale” to support Europe’s power security, pointing to new port infrastructure in the high north and on Canada’s east coast.
This article initially appeared on PitchBook News