Integrated Oil & Gas

Schneider Electric SE agreed to acquire U.S.-based engineering software developer PTC Inc. for $22.6 billion, or €20.1 billion, paying $205 per share in an all-cash deal. The transaction was among a string of major deals reported across sectors this week. Viatris said it will acquire all outstanding shares of Pacira BioSciences for $36.50 per share in cash, an aggregate equity value of $1.65 billion, while CD&R and McKesson agreed to acquire Option Care Health for $32.05 per share, valuing it at approximately $5.8 billion including debt, sending its shares up 34% in early trading Tuesday. Energy Transfer agreed to acquire Vaquero Midstream in a $2.625 billion deal consisting of $1.95 billion in cash and about 33.3 million newly issued Energy Transfer common units, and Cenovus Energy agreed to acquire Athabasca Oil in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about C$5.7 billion, a 14% premium to Athabasca's 20-day volume-weighted average trading price. Canadian utilities Emera and Canadian Utilities agreed to an all-stock merger worth C$14.3 billion, or US$10 billion, creating a combined company with a C$72 billion enterprise value and a regulated rate base of C$45 billion serving roughly 6 million customers. Separately, TKO LLC proposed to acquire Service Properties Trust's entire hospitality portfolio for $2.0 billion, and CCC Intelligent Solutions soared 13% in after-hours trading on a report that GTCR and Elliott Investment Management are in advanced discussions to purchase the car-insurance software firm.

Analysts have lifted the implied fair value of New Era Energy & Digital to about US$11.67 from US$10.50, roughly an 11% increase, as Wall Street weighs progress at the company's Texas Critical Data Centers against sector and regulatory risk. Roth Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a US$10 price target, saying the share price does not fully capture potential commercialization of Texas Critical Data Centers Phases I and II. Northland raised its target to US$12 from US$10 with an Outperform rating, citing progress on the Phase 1 PPA, strong major tenant interest, and management guidance around capacity delivery in 2H27, while B. Riley lifted its target to US$13 from US$10 and kept a Buy rating. B. Riley also noted that the digital mining and HPC peer group has fallen 34% since June 22, compared with 6.2% for the Russell 2000, reflecting regulatory uncertainty, higher yields, and slower leasing activity. The updated model raised the revenue growth assumption to 626.36% from 344.38%, lifted the profit margin forecast to 20.24% from 17.82%, cut the future P/E multiple to 26.88x from 75.20x, and adjusted the discount rate to 7.236% from 7.108%.

Chevron is shutting multiple offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and evacuating non-essential personnel as Hurricane Isaias approaches the region. The company said the shut-ins affect offshore oil and gas output, though it did not disclose the exact production volumes involved. The disruption is expected to weigh on revenue and cash flow for the period, partly offset by any refining or trading benefits from oil at more than US$105 per barrel. Chevron has not indicated any change to its full-year volume or CapEx targets, and the next quarterly report and management commentary will be the clearest signal of the storm's impact, including any quantified production effect, updated 2026 output guidance and hurricane-related repair or insurance costs.

Shell said Friday it agreed to acquire a 30% non-operated interest in the Bay du Nord project offshore Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, while Equinor will retain a 70% interest and remain the operator; financial terms were not disclosed. Shell said the transaction provides an attractive entry point, expected returns above its hurdle rate, and exposure to an established resource base with potential longer-term growth. Bay du Nord is a phased subsea development tied back to a floating production, storage and offloading vessel, with planned gross production capacity of 160K-175K boe/day and first oil anticipated in 2031, and it is currently finalizing the front-end engineering and design. Equinor said the deal supports the continued maturation of Bay du Nord towards an investment decision currently targeted for early 2027.

Eni has completed the installation of the Douglas CCS platform in Liverpool Bay, advancing the carbon dioxide transportation and storage network that underpins the HyNet industrial decarbonization cluster in the United Kingdom. The platform, delivered in less than 18 months from contract award under an accelerated engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning program, is the world's first purpose-built offshore platform dedicated to CCS for industrial decarbonization. It will receive CO2 captured from industrial sites across North West England and North Wales and distribute it through repurposed offshore pipelines to depleted natural gas reservoirs for permanent storage. The wider Liverpool Bay CCS network is approximately 50% complete, with around 60% of total project expenditure directed toward U.K.-based supply chains, supporting more than 2,000 construction jobs and an estimated 200 to 300 long-term roles over the project's more than 25 years of operations. The project forms part of Eni CCUS Holding's broader portfolio of CCS initiatives, the joint venture between Eni and Global Infrastructure Partners, a part of BlackRock.

Oil companies announced four separate transactions in four trading days as Brent crude held above $100 a barrel, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration now expecting Brent to average $96.32 a barrel in 2026 and $83.74 in 2027, up from $91.01 and $73.74 a month ago in its October Short-Term Energy Outlook. The EIA said Brent averaged $114 a barrel in September, $23 higher than in August, and touched a daily high of $131 on September 15 after attacks on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline temporarily halted flows on a route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, and it assumes Middle East oil flows stay constrained through the fourth quarter with shut-ins averaging 4.5 million barrels per day. Cenovus Energy agreed on October 5 to acquire Athabasca Oil Corporation for C$12.00 per Athabasca share, payable in cash, Cenovus shares or a combination, for an implied enterprise value of C$5.7 billion, adding about 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and expected to generate about $85 million a year in synergies. Energy Transfer agreed on October 6 to acquire Vaquero Midstream for about $2.6 billion, made up of $1.95 billion in cash and about 33.3 million newly issued Energy Transfer common units, adding roughly 300 miles of pipeline in Texas and the Caymus Processing Complex with about 675 million cubic feet per day of capacity. Chevron subsidiaries signed definitive agreements on October 6 with Hess Midstream to extend Bakken midstream terms, expecting to cut Bakken unit midstream costs by about 50%, divest its Hess Midstream interests and transfer DJ Basin crude oil midstream assets for $200 million in cash, and fully deconsolidate Hess Midstream including about $3.7 billion of its debt. Crescent Energy agreed on October 8 to acquire Devon Energy's Eagle Ford assets for an estimated net purchase price of about $3.85 billion after adjustments, adding about 68,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of net production and more than 600 Tier 1 net locations, and launched a $1 billion offering of Class A common stock the same day. Shell issued its third quarter 2026 update note on October 7, pointing to an indicative refining margin of $42 a barrel, up from $24 in the second quarter, with Integrated Gas production expected at 740,000 to 780,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and third quarter results scheduled for October 29.

TotalEnergies has agreed a 15 year digital drilling and engineering contract with SLB covering global upstream projects, while separately taking final investment decision on full field development of the Absheron gas and condensate field in Azerbaijan. The SLB agreement introduces integrated digital well planning tools intended to centralise data and support drilling decisions across TotalEnergies' portfolio. The Absheron project is designed around automation and lower emission infrastructure to support regional gas supply and energy transition goals, with a targeted 2029 start up and four subsea wells plus an onshore plant to be delivered. Investors are told to watch project updates between now and that start up, including capex guidance and disclosures on how widely the SLB DrillPlan system is used across the wider upstream portfolio. The article frames both moves as reinforcing TotalEnergies' existing push into gas and power and its focus on digitalisation, rather than as a rewrite of the investment narrative.

Equinor and its partners have discovered an estimated 3.3 million to 10.3 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent in gas at Norway's Gullfaks South field, using an exploration sidetrack drilled during work on a production well. The find, announced on October 8, contains an estimated 0.5 million to 1.6 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil equivalent and lies about 190 kilometers northwest of Bergen. The Askeladden rig drilled the exploration well, formally designated 34/10-D-4 BH, within the Gullfaks production license, where Equinor's partners are Petoro and OMV. Gunnar Egge, Equinor's vice president for the Gullfaks field, said discoveries of this size could be made through cost-effective exploration wells and described the resources as profitable barrels that can help maintain activity and production on the Gullfaks field. Equinor did not disclose a development cost, production start date or expected output rate in the announcement.

Suncor Energy agreed to sell key east coast offshore oil assets to Ithaca Energy, exiting production in that region. The divestiture shifts capital deployment toward Suncor's core oil sands projects, and management signalled a tighter focus on those operations. The company paired the asset sale with a stated plan to increase share buybacks as part of its capital return priorities. The deal trims Suncor's exposure to offshore fields including Terra Nova, White Rose and West White Rose, and the clearest early test will be how it deploys the roughly CA$1.55b upfront proceeds and any contingent payments over 2026 to 2028. Suncor Energy operates as an integrated oil and gas producer across Canada, the United States, and other regions, with a CA$113.5 billion market cap.

Chevron reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.06 per share on July 31, beating the consensus estimate of $5.80, while revenue of $70.1 billion crushed expectations of $57.5 billion by more than 20%. Net oil-equivalent output hit 4.07 million barrels per day, up from 3.40 million a year ago, a nearly 20% year-over-year jump reflecting a full contribution from Hess along with record U.S. upstream production. Upstream earnings soared to $8.18 billion from $2.73 billion a year ago, and downstream earnings rocketed to $4.87 billion from just $737 million, helped by record crude throughput at U.S. refineries. Operating cash flow reached $22.6 billion, well ahead of the $19.7 billion analysts expected, and adjusted free cash flow came in at $15.4 billion versus $4.9 billion a year ago, while the net debt ratio fell to 13.1% from 17.9% in the prior quarter. In September, Chevron agreed to updated joint venture terms in Venezuela and plans to invest more than $7 billion over five years to more than double production to about 600,000 barrels per day by 2031, and the company reports third-quarter results before the bell on October 30.

Equinor and its partners have discovered gas at the Gullfaks South field, 190 kilometers northwest of Bergen, with recoverable volumes estimated at between 0.5 million and 1.6 million standard cubic meters of oil equivalents, or 3.3 to 10.3 million barrels of oil equivalent. The exploration well was drilled as a sidetrack in connection with the drilling of a production well, using the drilling rig Askeladden. Gunnar Egge, Equinor's vice president for the Gullfaks field, said it is very positive that discoveries of this size can be made with such cost-effective exploration wells, calling them profitable barrels that can help maintain activity and production on the Gullfaks field. The discovery lies within the production licence for Gullfaks and therefore has the same owners as Gullfaks. Equinor shares rose 3% in premarket trading.

Guanghui Energy announced that it expects net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the first three quarters of 2026 to be between 2.70 billion yuan and 2.80 billion yuan, an increase of 166.83% to 176.71% year-on-year. The change in performance is mainly due to the continued recovery of the domestic energy industry, a rise in the central price range of the company's main product sales, full release of production capacity, and continuous widening of profit margins. Among these, the company's net profit for the third quarter is expected to be between 1.422 billion yuan and 1.522 billion yuan, while net profit for the second quarter was 1.042 billion yuan. Based on this calculation, net profit for the third quarter is expected to increase by 36% to 46% quarter-on-quarter.

Guanghui Energy announced that it expects net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the first three quarters of 2026 to be between 2.7 billion yuan and 2.8 billion yuan, up 166.83% to 176.71% year on year. The company said the change in performance was mainly due to the continued recovery of the domestic energy industry, a higher central price range for the company's main product sales, full release of production capacity, and continued widening of profit margins.

Guanghui Energy released a preliminary earnings increase announcement for the first three quarters of 2026 after market close on October 8, expecting third-quarter net profit attributable to the parent of 1.42 billion to 1.52 billion yuan, up 795.08% to 858.12% year on year. The company expects cumulative net profit attributable to the parent for the first three quarters of 2.7 billion to 2.8 billion yuan, up 166.83% to 176.71% year on year, with third-quarter profit alone exceeding the combined profit of the first two quarters of the year. The company said the sharp expected profit increase mainly benefited from continued recovery in the domestic energy industry, improved supply-demand conditions, full capacity release after the completion of annual maintenance at coal chemical facilities in the third quarter, continued higher output of major products, and a higher average selling price. The company also expects non-recurring gains and losses for the first three quarters to be around negative 40 million yuan, mainly affected by asset retirement losses and other factors, and noted that the figures in the announcement are preliminary calculations and have not been audited by an accounting firm. As of the close on October 8, 2026, Guanghui Energy's share price had risen 39.92% year to date.

Cenovus Energy is deepening its Canadian oil sands footprint through its November 2025 MEG Energy acquisition and a newly announced deal to acquire Athabasca Oil Corporation. Management said the Christina Lake North assets, formerly MEG's Christina Lake, are the biggest contributor to upstream production and have already moved above their rated capacity of 110,000 barrels per day. Cenovus is investing approximately $400 million in growth capital to expand Christina Lake North through new steam generators, facility debottlenecking and redevelopment drilling, which is expected to add nearly 40,000 barrels per day of production by 2028. The Athabasca transaction, expected to close in December, is anticipated to add 45 Mboe per day of production, including thermal production near Christina Lake North, extending the company's long-term growth runway. In the second quarter, Cenovus achieved total upstream production of 970 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Equinor raised the estimated cost of upgrading its Hammerfest liquefied natural gas plant on Wednesday, less than a year after its last revision. The company said the Snohvit Future project, designed to extend the plant's operational life toward 2050, will now cost NOK26.5B, or about $2.8B, compared with an estimate of NOK13.2B when the plan was submitted in 2022, equivalent to NOK15.2B in today's value. Equinor Senior VP Trond Bokn said the project is being carried out at an operating facility and is more complex than anticipated, and has been affected by unforeseen issues and challenges including weather conditions in northern Norway. Hammerfest is now 60% complete, and the company said the timetable for the start of onshore compression and electrification remains unchanged at 2029 and 2030, respectively. Equinor also said it expects its downstream division, which includes energy trading, to surpass the company's Q3 profit guidance of $400M due to unusually strong European refining margins.

Equinor expects its marketing, midstream, and processing division to have earned more than the company's guidance of $400 million for the third quarter, driven by very strong refining margins and high proceeds from oil and LNG trading. The Norwegian energy major said in a quarterly update on Wednesday that unusually strong European refining margins combined with optimisation of equity and third-party LNG trading are expected to contribute positively to the result, with an average Dated Brent price of $97 per barrel for the quarter. In Norway operations, Equinor estimated its realized liquids price for the E&P Norway division was in the range of $97 to $99 per barrel in the third quarter, while the preliminary internal gas transfer price for the quarter is $18.07 per million British thermal units. For comparison, Equinor realized a European gas price of $15.8 per MMBtu in the second quarter of 2026, up 32% from a year earlier, and a liquids price of $97.9 per barrel, a 55% jump year over year. Equinor is reporting full third-quarter results on October 28.

Chevron Corporation announced that several of its subsidiaries have entered into definitive agreements with Hess Midstream LP to restructure its Bakken midstream contracts and establish new DJ Basin midstream contracts. Under the deal, Chevron will transfer to Hess Midstream its ownership interests and general partner position in Hess Midstream, as well as its DJ Basin crude oil midstream assets, in exchange for the improved long-term commercial framework and $200 million in cash consideration. The revised agreements extend the Bakken contracts and are expected to reduce Chevron's Bakken unit midstream costs by approximately 50%, enhancing future earnings and return on capital employed. Chevron expects to fully deconsolidate Hess Midstream, including approximately $3.7 billion of Hess Midstream's debt, and expects the transaction to be accretive to return on capital employed by 0.5% on an absolute basis, while recognizing a one-time after-tax loss estimated at approximately $3 to $4 billion at closing. Andy Walz, Chevron's President of Downstream, Midstream and Chemicals, said the transaction resets the commercial framework between the company's upstream and midstream assets in the Bakken and DJ Basins, lowers its Bakken cost structure and positions Hess Midstream to advance as an independent company. The transaction has been approved by the Conflicts Committee of the Board of Directors of the general partner of Hess Midstream and is expected to close by year-end 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Halliburton and TotalEnergies have signed new agreements in Venezuela, deepening Western oil companies' push into the country's 303 billion barrels of crude reserves. Halliburton signed two memoranda of understanding with Brazil's Eneva and engineering firm WESCA to deploy digital technologies and subsurface interpretation tools for field evaluation and development planning in the Orinoco and Maracaibo basins. TotalEnergies' deal with PDVSA includes the Travi light crude field in Monagas state, reversing its 2021 withdrawal from the Petrocedeno joint venture. The moves follow a U.S. agreement signed on 2 September by Energy Secretary Chris Wright covering 65 billion barrels of proven reserves across 17 fields, a 100-year concession that President Donald Trump called "the biggest oil deal in world history." Chevron has raised Venezuelan output from 40,000 barrels per day to 250,000 bpd, with CFO Eimear Bonner projecting a 50% increase to 420,000 bpd by the end of 2028, while BP has opened a permanent Caracas office and secured a license for Phase 2 of the offshore Loran gas field.

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said Tuesday that the energy system is more fragile than earlier in the Middle East war as oil and gas market fundamentals tighten, according to Reuters. Speaking at the Energy Intelligence Forum in London, Wirth said the landed price of physical oil in Asia is currently closer to $150/bbl than current Brent prices of ~$100/bbl. He added that refined products markets are also tightening, driving gasoline and diesel prices well above underlying crude, which has pushed G7 governments to implement a 100M-barrel crude and diesel strategic reserve release amid threats of a potential U.S. ban on exports. Wirth warned that restricting supply through an export ban would constrain supplies when the world needs them, saying the U.S. is not independent of world markets and that a diesel ban could raise prices for consumers in some parts of the U.S. and send a bad signal to allies that rely on American supplies. He also said oil and gas demand will continue to grow after the end of the Iran war, and that Chevron could join an Iraq-to-Mediterranean oil pipeline consortium.

Chevron Corp. is raising its budget for conventional exploration and appraisal after a five-year stretch of soft spending, with 2026 outlays projected to exceed $1.5 billion. The company spent $1.82 billion on conventional exploration and appraisal between 2021 and 2025, a 36% drop from the prior five-year period, and is now committing capital across frontier blocks in Egypt, Peru, Suriname, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, and the Gulf of Mexico. The push follows a decline in Chevron's proven reserves to a decade low of 9.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2024, before recovering to 10.6 billion BOE at the close of 2025, helped by additional reserves and the $53 billion acquisition of Hess Corporation. Chevron shares closed at $206.69 on October 2, extending their 2026 gain to 35.61% and outpacing the broader S&P 500. Management expects annual EPS and adjusted free cash flow growth of more than 10% through 2030, assuming nominal Brent prices of $70 per barrel.

BP plc is conducting a company-wide review of its asset portfolio to identify and dispose of assets that do not fit its strategic objectives or dilute margins, management said on its latest earnings call. Assets will be judged on capital efficiency and their ability to generate returns, with the aim of improving the quality of earnings and cash flow over the long term. The sale of the Gelsenkirchen refinery and BP's decision to sell its Austria mobility and convenience business underscore that approach, and the company said it will invest only in projects expected to deliver competitive returns. BP does not view the sell-off of non-core assets as merely a cost-cutting program, but as a way to free capital tied to complex, lower-return assets and reinvest the proceeds in higher-margin businesses. Separately, ConocoPhillips said on its second-quarter earnings call that it had reached its $5 billion asset-sale target ahead of schedule, while Phillips 66 is reshaping its portfolio around core markets through retail asset sales in Germany and Austria, the idling of the Los Angeles refinery and the completed acquisition of Lindsey Oil Refinery and logistics operations in April 2026.

Chevron is expanding its stake in Namibia's Orange Basin, with its affiliate Harmattan Energy Ltd. agreeing to acquire Trago Energy Pty Ltd.'s 10% participating interest in Petroleum Exploration License 90. Trago, a subsidiary of Custos Energy (Pty) Ltd., will receive $11 million in cash at closing plus contingent consideration tied to future appraisal and production milestones, with the deal still subject to government, regulatory and third-party approvals. The move follows Chevron's August decision to farm out a 17.4% interest in PEL 90 to Equinor, which would have cut Chevron's stake from 52.5% to 35.1%; adding the Trago interest would lift it to 45.1% if both transactions close, while Chevron continues to operate the license. PEL 90 covers Block 2813B, roughly 5,433 square kilometers near the TotalEnergies-operated Venus discovery, and Chevron plans to drill the Nabba-1X exploration well there in the fourth quarter of 2026 as part of a wider multi-well campaign across Sub-Saharan Africa. Nabba-1X would be Chevron's second offshore Namibia well after Kapana-1X reached total depth in January 2025 without encountering commercial hydrocarbons.

Cenovus Energy Inc. has agreed to acquire Athabasca Oil Corporation in a $5.7-billion cash-and-stock transaction that adds roughly 45 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day of production to its Canadian oil sands portfolio. The deal brings Athabasca's thermal assets, including Leismer and Corner, next to Cenovus' Christina Lake, May River and Thornbury properties, and Cenovus is targeting 115 thousand barrels per day of thermal production by 2032. Cenovus expects about $85 million in annual corporate and commercial synergies, with most benefits in the first full year after closing, and plans to expand Leismer to 60 MBPD by 2032 while accelerating Corner's expansion by three years. The company said the transaction should be accretive to adjusted funds flow per share in 2027, with year-end 2026 pro forma net debt projected at $5-$5.5 billion at strip pricing, and its $4-billion net debt target and returns-focused financial framework remain unchanged. The article also noted that Chevron completed its Hess acquisition in July 2025 and reported record U.S. upstream production of nearly 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter of 2026, while Diamondback Energy said production surpassed 1 MMBoe/d for the first time in its second-quarter 2026 update.

TotalEnergies SE has agreed to transfer operatorship of the 5.6 Mtpa Papua LNG project in Papua New Guinea to ExxonMobil, selling a 9.1% interest that leaves it with a 20% stake plus a 1.5 Mtpa LNG offtake agreement. The French energy major also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Venezuelan government in mid-September, planning a return to the country after withdrawing from the Petrocedeno joint venture in 2021. TotalEnergies reported trailing twelve-month revenue of $196.38 billion, a 14.48% return on equity, a 12.79% operating margin and a 9.08% net margin, with operating cash flow of $33.04 billion and levered free cash flow of $13.53 billion against $62.92 billion in total debt. The stock closed at $84.40 on October 2, giving it a market capitalization of $186.2 billion and a 41.18% gain over the past 52 weeks. Hedge fund holdings rose to 34 in the second quarter of 2026 from 30 in the prior quarter, with Amundi the largest institutional investor at 206.12 million shares, or 8.25% of outstanding shares.

Equinor ASA stands to benefit from elevated Brent crude prices as its expanding production base increases exposure to stronger crude realizations. Brent is trading above $100 per barrel amid Middle East supply disruptions and falling global inventories, with disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz restricting regional energy exports. Equinor's upstream portfolio is supported by production growth from assets including Johan Castberg, Eirin, Symra and Bacalhau, and its low breakeven after a dividend of about $50 per barrel supports strong cash generation even if Brent retreats. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts Brent to average around $90 per barrel in the second half of 2026. Shell plc saw its second-quarter 2026 upstream adjusted earnings rise as its realized liquids price increased to $89 per barrel from $72 in the prior quarter, while TotalEnergies SE said an $8-per-barrel increase in Brent was enough to offset the expected 2026 cash-flow impact from affected assets in Iraq, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Equinor shares have gained 67.7% over the past year against the industry's 115.7% growth, and the stock trades at a trailing 12-month EV/EBITDA of 2.2X versus the industry average of 5.94X.

Chevron has drawn heavy investor search interest on Zacks.com, with the company now rated Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) on the strength of sharply rising earnings estimates. Chevron is expected to post earnings of $4.89 per share for the current quarter, a year-over-year change of +164.3%, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has moved +22.4% over the last 30 days. For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $16.98 points to a change of +132.9% from the prior year, while the next fiscal year's consensus estimate of $15.11 indicates a change of -11%. On the revenue side, the consensus sales estimate of $59.3 billion for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +19.3%, with the $235.36 billion and $228.55 billion estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicating changes of +24.5% and -2.9%, respectively. In the last reported quarter, Chevron posted revenues of $70.06 billion, a year-over-year change of +56.3%, and EPS of $6.06 versus $1.77 a year ago, beating the Zacks Consensus revenue estimate of $57.53 billion by +21.78% and the EPS estimate by +4.48%.

Exxon Mobil Holdings is expected to post earnings of $3.93 per share for the current quarter, a year-over-year change of +109%, with the Zacks Consensus Estimate rising +19.8% over the last 30 days. For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $12.4 indicates a year-over-year change of +77.4% and has moved +4.5% over the past month, while the next fiscal year's estimate of $12.08 reflects a -2.6% change from the prior year and a +5.7% revision over the last month. The consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $104.61 billion indicates a year-over-year change of +22.7%, with current and next fiscal year estimates of $410.03 billion and $407.47 billion representing +23.4% and -0.6% changes, respectively. Exxon reported revenues of $116.02 billion in the last reported quarter, a year-over-year change of +42.3%, with EPS of $3.52 versus $1.64 a year ago, and the revenue figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $95.8 billion by a surprise of +21.1% while the EPS surprise was -4.35%. Based on the size of the recent consensus estimate change and three other earnings-related factors, Exxon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and a Zacks Value Style Score of B, indicating it trades at a discount to its peers.

Cenovus Energy Inc. agreed to buy Athabasca Oil Corp. at an enterprise value of C$5.7 billion, or $4 billion, the latest in a wave of consolidation as Canada's government seeks to grow energy production. The cash and share takeover would add about 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to Cenovus's output and give it significant potential for further growth, according to the statement. The per-share value represents a 13% premium to Athabasca's closing price on Oct. 2. The cash portion, accounting for 65% to 75% of the transaction, will be funded with cash on hand and certain short-term borrowings, and Cenovus's financial framework and net-debt target of $4 billion remain unchanged. The deal has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close in December, pending approvals from regulators and Athabasca shareholders, the company said. Cenovus president and chief executive officer Jon McKenzie said the transaction strengthens the company's position in one of the world's premier oil-producing regions and is a natural extension of its oil sands strategy.