PE Live: UKCS M&A faces challenges

Downturns often usher in buying opportunities, but there are unique obstacles in the current environment

The UK continental shelf (UKCS) has seen substantial revisions to and cancellations of already agreed deals and a slowdown in ongoing sales processes as players take stock in a post-Covid world. Panellists on the latest PE Live webcast see both short and longer-term challenges to M&A in the basin. But they also remain convinced that, if the right assets are available at the right price, deals will be done. And it is worth remembering that the UKCS is far from alone in facing hurdles in this respect. “Globally, M&A activity in 2019 was half of the average over the past two decades,” says Jon Story, vice-president for upstream at consultancy IHS Markit. “And it was a third of what it w