Higher and more stable oil prices, corporate restructurings, and investors warming to the idea of longer-term investment sent the U.S. oil and gas deals value to a near-record US$122.8 billion in the third quarter of 2018, the highest deal value since a record high Q3 2014, PwC said in its quarterly deals insights report on Thursday. The record high third quarter of 2014 saw a total of US$125.7 billion worth of deals struck. While the volume of the deals was slightly higher quarter-on-quarter and within the historic average trends, the average deal value hit record highs in Q3, PwC said, noting that 82 percent of the deal value was driven by mega deals. A large part of those mega deals were affiliate transactions, which continued to be led by midstream companies restructuring the so-called master limited partnerships (MLP). “Investors appear to be seeking midstream assets to alleviate operational bottlenecks, […]