In the North Sea Shell agreed to sell assets to Chrysaor, backed by Harbor and EIG Global, a $ 3.8 billion deal, while the Delek Group said it would pay about $ 1 billion for the remaining share of 80.3% in Ithaca Energy.

ExxonMobil announced a divestiture of US $ 1 billion of Norwegian continental shelf fields operated for HitecVision-backed Point Resources.

Mangesh Hirve, COO of Derrick Petroleum Services, said that private equity "became active" over the period.

Canada. Sixty-five percent of the $ 39 billion was recorded by Canadian transactions, driven by two mega oil sands operations.

ConocoPhillips sold oil sands and gas assets to Cenovus for $ 13.3 billion and Shell sold bitumen projects to Canadian Natural Resources for $ 8.5 billion.

In the US, $ 23 billion in M & A business was announced over the three months, bringing the overall total above $ 60 billion.

It means that the first quarter of 2017 was the first strongest in the last decade for M & A in the upstream.

Fourteen of the top 20 US businesses were in the Permian Basin in southeastern Texas, including the three largest.

In Mexico. ExxonMobil acquired Delaware Basin assets in Bass Brothers' New Mexico for $ 5.6 billion, Noble Energy announced the purchase of $ 3.2 billion from Clayton Williams, and Parsley Energy acquired $ 2.8 billion In the Midland area of Double Eagle Energy.

"Permian's business continued to dominate the merger and acquisition market in the United States, reaching a new quarterly record of $ 17 billion in negotiated value," said Derrick Managing Director Ajit Thomas.

"The buyers were in contention to get their hands on what they could in the best tight move in the world before all opportunities were taken."

In Africa, ExxonMobil acquired a 25% stake in Eni Area-4, Mozambique, and Shell dismantled the assets of Gabon for the Carlyle Group, supporting Assala Energy.

Tullow Oil of London has shown interest in the Lake Albert project in Uganda to China's CNOOC and the French Total.

The upstream business world started the year quite busy!