John Goodgame Speaks to Bloomberg about M&A in the Oil and Gas Sector

Akin Gump energy partner John Goodgame is featured in a Q&A article with Bloomberg Brief: Mergers, discussing the state of M&A activity in the oil and gas sector. Among the factors driving oil and gas M&A right now, he said, are “expectations regarding commodity prices, availability of capital and also just the new resource plays in general.”

Goodgame also talked about an influx of buyers from overseas, particularly those from Asia; new creative structures being used in upstream deals, which he describes as an investment into a new resource play; and the decline in 2013 in the total value of energy M&A deals, which he noted was due to “a significant amount of regulatory uncertainty” over possible tax action in 2013, with many deals being pushed into 2012.

Goodgame added that last year’s merger between Crestwood Midstream Partners LP and Inergy, L.P., in which he was part of the Akin Gump team advising Crestwood, “foreshadows what we are continuing to see in the midstream and MLP businesses” as more companies like those two “who have complimentary (sic) assets look to find ways to put their businesses together and decrease their cost of capital.”