Takeover Murmurings, page-30

I think M&A action will increase as the POO improves and demand recovers because there's been a real drop in exploration and subsequent discovery since around 2014, and that has to bite at some point. Many of the big Western oilcos are running with historically low reserves. Given the green pressure to stop looking for replacements and even more to stop producing what they have, the quickest and easiest way to add to their reserves and maintain production (and therefore revenue) would be to buy it from others. Again, time will tell but I don't think we're at that point yet. As far as we know nobody has pounced on Santos' share of Dorado yet and until they do we don't really have a good indicator of the market's appetite.