In oilfield activity sector, the overall value of deals increased from US$25.4bn to around US$67.3bn in the year 2007. Now, oil services sector is a major motor of M&A activity in oil and gas industry. Indeed, it was downstream sectors and the oilfield services which fuelled M&A activity. In both sectors, aggregate deal value more than doubled. 'O&G Deals' expect that as soon as credit crunch takes effect, vast leveraged deals will become difficult in the sector.

Rick Roberge, US energy transaction services leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers said, "The sector is complex with many specialty services and consolidation will not necessarily make sense across the board, but the scope for deal-making will be high on the agenda of many companies as well as investors."

The report also incorporates a focus on global deals and on major regional markets. International deals, in the year 2007, increased across the board with the expectation of upstream. It increased 269 percent from US$20.5bn in the year 2006 to around US$75.8bn in the year 2007.

In North America, O&G deal volume declined from US$164.7bn in the year 2006 to around US$129.7bn in the year 2007. There were around 31 deals in the year 2007 compared to 32 deals in the year 2006. In Europe, O&G Deal value could not compete that of the year 2006. Michael Hurley, the UK oil and gas advisory leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said that the search for profitability, scale and globalization will continue to fuel M&A activity.

In the Russian Federation, the deal value increased from US$30.1bn in the year 2006 to around US$35.7bn in the year 2007. In the Asia Pacific, deal numbers declined from 105 to around 76, however this pushed average size to US$213 million.