The broader A&D market experienced a five-year low in 2013, with global transaction activity down 119 fewer deals than the previous year, along with a transaction value of $205 billion -- a considerable decrease from $349 billion in 2012. This was because the industry shifted focus last year to development of existing resources rather than the acquisition of new ones, according to Deloitte’s Oil & Gas M&A Report Year-End 2013.

But in the Midcontinent, A&D activity saw a resurgence. Seventeen announced transactions (12% of the U.S. total) accounted for approximately $5 billion in value (14% of the U.S. total).

In the Panhandle plays (the Granite Wash, the Tonkawa/Cleveland and the Marmaton), deals announced in 2013 included Chaparral Energy’s $160 million acquisition of 66,000 net acres and 2,000 BOE per day in the Marmaton play from Cabot Oil and Gas. The transaction essentially doubled Chaparral’s holdings in the Marmaton to 126,000 acres. Located in Beaver and Texas counties in Oklahoma, and Ochiltree County in Texas, production from the purchased assets is approximately 81% oil with proved reserves estimated to be 8.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBoe) and unproven reserves estimated to be 24 MMBoe as of October 1, 2013.

Another large transaction announced last year and recently completed was Jones Energy’s $195 million acquisition of assets in the Marmaton, Cleveland and Tonkawa plays from a private company. The acquisition (26,000 net acres that includes producing and undeveloped assets) is a bolt-on to the company’s Cleveland play and adds an additional 186 locations. Overall, it adds 40% to Jones’ Cleveland acreage and a 35% increase in Cleveland locations.

On the divestiture side of things, just last month, EOG Resources announced plans to sell 8,500 net acres, including production from 28 existing wells within the defined Tonkawa play in Hemphill County, Texas. The sale includes high working interest and operational control on acreage that is mostly contiguous and held by production from vertical wells. An estimated 2,100 net acres are non-developed with 78.1% net revenue interest.

More recently, QEP Resources announced it was selling 50,000 acres in the Granite Wash as part of a larger Anadarko Basin offering. The Granite Wash Package has development potential in more than 20 stacked reservoirs with more than 2,000 gross locations, according to BMO Capital Markets.

So yes, there is some selling happening in the Panhandle right now. But there is also some buying. Does someone know something about the region that we don’t?

During a conference call regarding the Anadarko transaction, Jones Energy CEO Jonny cited the low-cost drilling and completion capabilities as a key driver of high returns in the Cleveland play. Well costs, according to Jones, run about $4 million there. According to the EIA, horizontal wells in the Bakken, Marcellus and Eagle Ford run between $6.5 million and $9 million.

Unit Corp., which holds properties in the Granite Wash and Marmaton, pays up to $5.5 million for a Granite Wash well, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. That’s comparable to EIA’s figure. Meanwhile, a Marmaton well can cost as low as $2.5 million. Add in the fact that most of the Marmaton is oil (as opposed to the gassier stacked pay of the Granite Wash), and it looks very attractive.

Will this trend of fluidity in the Panhandle continue? Jones hinted that his company might pursue other, smaller bolt-on acquisitions in the play in the future. “If it’s typical of what we’ve done in the past, there will be bolt-on opportunities around this particular transaction,” he said, according to the Seeking Alpha transcript. And, according to a December Wells Fargo report, QEP’s offering had already received “a lot of interest.”