Acquisitions & Divestitures

ExxonMobil’s (NYSE: XOM) announced acquisition of XTO Energy Inc. (NYSE: XTO) was tantamount to a $41-billion wake-up call to a slumbering domestic natural gas market, according to Jack Aydin, E&P analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, with research assistance from colleagues Mitchell Wurschmidt, Gabriele Sorbara and Joseph Stewart. The Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) and Total SA (NYSE: TOT) Barnet shale joint-venture announcement recently also plays a key role in bolstering the sector’s expected better performance going forward.

Technology continues to play a major role by helping domestic and integrated E&P ...