Goldman Sachs tops oil and gas M&A value as energy deal flow rebounds

The ranking matters inside Goldman because oil and gas has long been a proving ground for relationship banking, financing work and cross-border execution. A quarter like this can mean more live deal work for junior bankers, more direct exposure to senior clients and more material for promotion cases and bonus conversations. It also gives managing directors a visible signal that coverage and product teams are landing assignments in a market where commodity prices, capital intensity and geopolitics can shift boardroom thinking fast.

The scale of the rebound stands out against the prior year’s numbers. In the first quarter of 2025, TD Securities led oil and gas M&A by value with $10.4 billion, while Evercore led by volume. The gap between those results and Goldman’s $64.7 billion in the latest quarter suggests that energy deal flow is not just returning, it is getting bigger and more concentrated in marquee mandates. That kind of rotation is not unusual in this business. In the first half of 2025, Norton Rose Fulbright vaulted from 64th place by value in the first half of 2024 to first, after advising on $27.1 billion of oil and gas deals, including one worth more than $10 billion.

For Goldman, the timing lines up with a broader M&A backdrop the bank says is being shaped by strategic repositioning, private markets, AI, complex deal structures and more flexible capital solutions. Goldman has also said activists are becoming more active and that public campaign volumes are on pace to hit a new five-year high by year-end 2026. In other words, the rebound is not only about oil prices or one-off asset sales. It is about companies, sponsors and bankers reopening old files and deciding where scale, portfolio reshaping and capital discipline now matter most.