Unconventional resource assets drove deal-making activity in the first quarter of 2012 with North America accounting for 78% of all transactions. For all of 2011, 48% of all upstream M&A spending was in the US and Canada.

Toronto-based Scotiabank said April 18 that it has closed the acquisition by Scotia Capital Inc. of Howard Weil Incorporated, a privately held, US energy investment boutique with major offices in New Orleans and Houston. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The value of deals announced in the global oil and gas industry reached $33 billion during the first quarter of 2012, according to Eoin Coyne of London-based Evaluate Energy, which tracks worldwide mergers and acquisitions.

Should we convert LNG import terminals to export terminals? With conversion costs up to $8 billion per terminal, we need to consider the long-term prospects for the export market first.

Larry Hickey offers a primer on the wide range of hedging choices available to producers.

Three out of four wells drilled in the Marcellus today are natural gas wells, and gas prices have hit rock bottom. This does not make for good economics.