It has been a long and difficult stretch for Canadian oil and
gas, with legal challenges, political decisions and takeaway
capacity issues all serving to put pressure on an already stymied
industry. A confluence of challenges—including, most
prominently, persisting uncertainty around the Trans Mountain
Pipeline—continue to negatively affect the sector in Canada.
On the heels of the federal election, we must now wait to see
whether further barriers will be created by the Liberals'
minority government, notwithstanding the government's vow that
the Trans Mountain Pipeline will be built.
Oil and gas in 2019
M&A activity in oil and gas has been on a downward trend
since 2016 (see Figure 1), with both volume and total deal value on
the decline. A projected 106 deals at a total value of $13B
expected for 2019 would represent the lowest activity in oil and
gas M&A in five years.
