M&A in Australasia - 2025 Q4

(Originally published on January 5, 2026)

Q4 has seen a further five new deals announced in Australasia, all of which were in Australia. The visible transaction value for these five deals was about US $54.9 million.

The final deal count for 2025 is 20 deals, with a total deal value of US $306 million (from 12 deals with a visible value). By comparison, 2024 also saw 20 transactions with a total deal value of US $2,764 million (from 13 deal with a visible deals). Noticeably, there were no significant transactions in 2025 related to the major LNG projects.

New deals announced in Q4

The five deals announced this quarter are:

1. In early-October 2025, Chevron submitted a change of ownership for WA-22-R, transferring the minority rights to Osaka Gas (1.25%), MidOcean Energy (1%), and JERA (0.417%). Chevron now (47.333% + operator) with partners ExxonMobil (25%) and Shell (25%). This was a logical move as the rights holdings now align with the Gorgon LNG ownership, with the retention lease covering the Geryon gas field that formed a part of the phase 3 development for Gorgon that took FID in early-December. I don't believe there was any financial payment and the deal was approved and completed in November 2025.
2. In late-November, we saw the quiet approval of a deal that will see Eni acquire Santos' interest in the WA-6-R, NT/RL1 & WA-27-R retention leases that contain the Petrel and Tern fields. Santos announced the deal in mid-December, stating that it delivered cash and contingent consideration to Santos but provided no future details of the transaction value. I looked at the deal in more detail here.
3. In late-November, Omega Oil and Gas acquired a 19.43% equity interest in Elixir Energy through a AU $13.9 million (~US $9.2 million) placement. Thsi move expands Omega's presence in the Taroom trough and helps to fund Elixir's exploration plans.
4. In mid-December, Comet Ridge announced they had entered into binding agreements to acquire Santos' 42.86% interest in the Mahalo Gas Project. The consideration includes AU $40 million (~US $26.4 million) as the upfront consideration and up to AU $20m (~US $13.2) in contingent payments linked to production milestones. The first payment is scheduled to occur at Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Mahalo Gas Project, or 30 June 2026, whichever is sooner. Once complete, Comet Ridge will hold 100% of the permits for the project.
5. In late-December, Central Petroleum announced they had have entered into binding Sale and Purchase Agreements (SPAs) with ADZ Energy to acquire an interest in two exploration permits and 24 retention leases in Victoria and South Australia. In Victoria, Central Petroleum will acquire a 20% interest in the PEP169 that contains the Enterprise North prospect and was previously held 100% by ADZ Energy. In South Australia, Central Petroleum will acquire a 49% interest in 24 Retention Leases together with PEL677. Central Petroleum will pay ADZ Energy:

• An consideration of AU $9.2 million (~US $6.2 million) upon completion plus Central’s participating interest share of specified back-costs
• AU $3.9 million (~US $2.6 million) success payment conditional on commercial success from the planned exploration well at Enterprise North.
• A 5% royalty on future production from Central’s 49% interest in the Cooper acreage.

ADZ Energy will continue as operator of all of all the permits and completion is conditional on consent from Central Energy’s financier and ADZ Energy obtaining certain security releases by 16 January 2026.

The table below summarises the deals announced this quarter:

In addition, we also saw a deal between Central Petroleum and Georgina Energy for some Northern Territory exploration permits. However, these appear to be focused on Helium and have therefore not been included.

Cancelled deals

There was a single deal that cancelled this quarter:

• In late-April 2024, Vintage Energy announced a farmout agreement with Sabre Energy for the latter to acquire a 50% stake in PELA 679. However, on 1st December 2025, Vintage Energy announced that Sabre Energy had given notice of termination of the Farmout Agreement owing to Sabre being unable to secure committed funding to meet the farm-in obligations on terms acceptable to Sabre Energy.

Deals that closed in Q4

From what I can see, there were two previously announced deal that closed this quarter in addition to the three deals that were announced and closed in Q4. The two previously announced deals are:

1. In mid-June, Vintage Energy announced that the had signed an agreement with Beach Energy for Beach to acquire Vintage's 25% stake in PEP 171, located onshore Otway Basin. The deal was announced as complete in late-November.
2. In late-September, Finder Energy announced they had signed a farm-in agreement with TIMOR GAP for the latter to increase their participating interest in PSC 19-11 from 24% to 34%. The deal was announced as complete in late-October.

Deals still pending completion

In addition to the new deals announced this quarter, there are some previously announced deals that are yet-to-close, or I have not seen confirmation of closing.

• In mid-December 2024, Woodside and Chevron announced a swap deal for Western Australia assets. Woodside will take Chevron's stake in NWS related projects (NWS LNG, CWLH, Angel CCS), whilst Chevron will take the Woodside stakes in their Wheatstone related projects (Julimar Brunello, Wheatstone LNG). It would appear that a number of permits have now changed hands but completion of the deal is still expected in 2026.
• In mid-May, Tamboran Resources and Daly Waters Energy (DWE) announced that they had signed a binding agreement to finalize the checkerboard of the joint acreage position across EP 76, EP 98 and EP 117. At the same time they announced that the same companies had signed a binding agreement for DWE to acquire a non-operating and non-controlling interest in 100,000 acres within two areas for a consideration of US$15 million. I don't believe the deal has closed yet and is still waiting on approvals.
• In late-July, Woodside announced that it had agreed to take over operatorship of the Gippsland Basin assets from ExxonMobil. with no other change in working interest. The deal is subject to approvals and is expected to complete in 2026.
• At the end of September. Tamboran Resources announced that they have entered a definitive agreement to acquire Falcon Oil & Gas for CD $239 million (US $172 million). Both companies' Boards of Directors unanimously approved the transaction in early-October, with the deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.

Assets on the market

I have been keeping track of the assets on the market, with these summarised in the table below.

There are no significant changes from Q3.

Questions and feedback

If you have any questions or feedback on the article then please drop me a DM. This article is simply my opinion and is based on publicly available data and my own knowledge of the region.