Permian inventory and peer group consolidation: who owns the upside?

We were in Midland in mid-November to present inventory benchmarking analysis at Hart’s Executive Oil Conference. With commodity prices softening and close to US$100 billion in Permian deal spend so far this year, inventory has come roaring back to the forefront of nearly every conversation with Permian management teams and investors. We recorded a short video to dig into the actual and perceived need for more well locations and share a few of our key messages with those who couldn’t make it to the conference. Have all of the recent deals created a seller’s market now? The high volume of deal rumors, especially those like Oxy’s bid for CrownRock, certainly suggest that may be the case. Are we nearing the point where acquiring significant locations is prohibitively expensive for some companies? What role could exploration and appraisal play in that instance?