Philip Dunlap (partner), David Bowsher (partner) and Derek Anchondo (partner) are part of Balch & Bingham's Houston-based mergers and acquisitions team. They help their clients by providing insight into the current state of M&As in the oil and gas industry. Texas Lawyer spoke to them recently about the types of deals likely to occur in the coming months as well as what to anticipate in the future.

Can you tell me about the current state of mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas industry?

Philip Dunlap: It's a surprise to no one that deal volume is down in 2020 and particularly in the oil and gas industry. However, depending on the sector of this industry, there will be opportunities for deals as everyone starts to reengage in the market. In the upstream and oilfield services sectors, the deals that will be pushed through this year are those where buyers think they are getting a discount or sellers are extremely motivated to sell (either out of necessity or desire to "hang it up"). I expect that lack of available debt will mean more strategic buyers closing deals than financial buyers. Although not traditional "oil and gas," I've seen a couple of deals in the retail gasoline market close this year. Those businesses are not tied to the price of WTI crude like the upstream and midstream sectors, so buyers and sellers are still working through traditional deal scenarios.