S&P Capital IQ Quotes Wes Williams, Corey Roush on FTC’s New Antitrust Focus and Energy Megadeals

For its article “Oil and gas megadeals will proceed despite new FTC approach to antitrust,” S&P Capital IQ quoted Akin energy practice co-head Wes Williams and antitrust practice head Corey Roush. The article discusses federal antitrust regulators’ focus on two “megadeals”—Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Chevron Corp’s $53 billion merger with Hess Corp.—and the question of whether this regulator interest will chill the market for oil and gas consolidation.

Corey noted that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Chair Lina Kahn has been moving away from traditional antitrust inquiries focusing on consumer impact toward protecting smaller competitors.

He said, “I don’t think in today’s environment that the big oil companies were surprised by getting second requests.” On the topic of regulators regarding deals in a new, nontraditional way, Corey added, “It remains to be seen whether one or both of these deals end up being the place where regulators decide they want to test the new theory of antitrust.”

Wes noted that the FTC’s shift in perspective has introduced a bit of uncertainty into oil and gas deals, but has not slowed the pace of dealmaking: “I don’t think that the players in the space are limiting the amount of dealmaking that will occur. I think that they will continue to try to buy and sell properties, especially in the Permian, as hot as it’s been over the past few years.” He added that he thinks that it does have an impact on the planning and structuring of deals.