Big spending is back in the oil and gas world. With ExxonMobil unloading a $6.6 billion mega-buy in the Permian Basin of Texas this week — just a day after Noble Energy unveiled a $2.7 billion acreage purchase in the same play. In fact, new data from Evaluate Energy shows that petro-M&A hit a high in Q4 2016. With oil and gas buyouts totalling just under $60 billion during the quarter — by far the highest since Q2 2015, a quarter that was skewed by Shell’s $50 billion acquisition of BG Group. Check out the chart below. (Click to enlarge) Oil and gas M&A saw a notable jump during Q4 2016 And news this week suggests oil companies may have another big target for project acquisitions over the coming months. In Brazil’s prolific subsalt play. Brazil’s Oil Secretary Marcio Felix told Reuters that the country will launch not one, […]