ExxonMobil announced on October 11 that it will acquire US shale oil and gas company Pioneer Natural Resources in an all-stock transaction worth $59.5 billion. The deal is "the largest ever shale oil and gas transaction in the United States".

 The oil giant said the acquisition will double its acreage in the Permian Basin, combining Pioneer's more than 850,000 net acres in the Midland Basin with ExxonMobil's 570,000 net acres in Delaware and the Midland Basin.

 According to the acquisition announcement, the high-quality oil and gas produced from Pioneer's land, combined with ExxonMobil's fields, will bring the total resources in the basin to 16 billion barrels of oil equivalent. By 2027, the combined production of the basin will reach about 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. According to S&P Global Commodity Insights, Pioneer currently has about 5,706 wells in the Midland Basin with break-evens ranging from $60.15 to $71.71 per barrel. ExxonMobil has about 1,907 wells in the Midland, most of which have break-evens ranging from $67.84 to $84.05 per barrel. ExxonMobil expects to extract Pioneer's fields for less than $35 per barrel and to earn double-digit returns. Rene Santos, global analyst at S&P Global, said the $60 billion deal "is the largest shale oil and gas deal ever in the United States", bringing the total value of deals so far this year to $98.2 billion. The total value of shale gas M&A activity in the United States in 2022 was $34.5 billion.

Wuhai, China: Making every effort to build the world's largest integrated production base of BDO

 On October 10, the second BDO and degradable materials industry development conference was held in Wuhai. At the conference, Tang Yi, secretary of the Party committee of Wuhai, China, said that Wuhai will build the first BDO (1,4-butanediol) industry technology innovation center in China in 2025, and build the world's largest BDO integrated production base by 2027. Many experts at the conference suggested that adhering to the path of scientific and technological innovation is the optimal path for Wuhai to achieve high-quality development of BDO industry.

In recent years, Wuhai has made full use of its resource endowment to promote the coupling development of multiple industries.Currently, there are 5 BDO integrated projects completed and under construction, with a total investment of 56.6 billion yuan, and 8 downstream supporting projects. Wuhai has a BDO production capacity of 1 million tons and a GBL production capacity of 100,000 tons. Among the projects under construction, 600,000 tons of BDO, 360,000 tons of PTMEG, 300,000 tons of PBAT and 30,000 tons of THF will be put into production next year. Wuhai is striving to build four complete industrial chains: "BDO-spandex, BDO-lithium battery solvent, BDO-degradable materials/engineering plastics, BDO-pharmaceutical intermediates". It is expected to become the world's largest BDO integrated production base by 2027, with an expected output value of more than 100 billion yuan.