The Majors’ deepening interest in shale was illustrated by Chevron’s $50bn acquisition of Anadarko. Consolidating in the Permian fits our ‘Winner Takes All‘ thesis.
But who else wants more shale in their portfolio? This is not to speculate on M&A, but simply looking at the companies’ research activity last year…
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Hence the chart below summarises 300 technical papers into shale, published across a representative sample of companies in 2018.
Shell has been the most active shale researcher by a wide margin — half in the Permian, half internationally.
The companies who are not on this list may also be more interested in corporate M&A. This is a technology industry. And if you don’t have your own technology, you will need to buy it…
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If you would like to read our latest deep-dive note on shale-technology it is linked here. The full database, covering all 300 technical papers is available here.
