Hana Askren

Necessity is the mother of invention, as ancient Greek philosopher Plato famously said. That is true of private equity firms active in the oil and gas space. Faced with soaring interest rates, uncertainty in the secondary loan market, banks cutting their hydrocarbon lending, and large buyout shops such as Blackstone retreating from fossil-fuel investments, many have had to resort to innovative and alternative ways of financing transactions.

ExxonMobil’s [NYSE:XOM] reported interest in Pioneer Natural Resources [NYSE:PXD], coupled with a greater desire for energy security after Russia’s Ukraine invasion, initially sparked hopes of a blowout in dealmaking. But such a mega transaction in the Permian Basin — Pioneer holds the largest contiguous acreage there — is unlikely to trigger a wave of M&A activity because a valuation gap persists between buyers and sellers, said oil industry executives and advisors.

Nautilus Solar, a Summit, New Jersey-based community solar company, will continue its steady acquisition pace of around 250MW per year, said CEO Jeffrey Cheng. Nautilus is currently in 10 states and expects new states to continue to initiate or expand community solar programs, he said. It expects to grow exclusively in the US for the foreseeable future, as Canada does not currently have community solar programs, he said.