Don’t expect the oil price rout to trigger a wave of M&A activity any time soon. The last Big Oil M&A wave turned into a disaster for the acquiring companies. There’s a very real possibility that 2020 could be the slowest in the history of mergers in the sector Under normal circumstances, energy downturns create a perfect opportunity for deep-pocketed oil and gas heavyweights to land prime assets on the cheap. A good case in point: the last oil bust of 2016 was followed by a sizable number of huge M&A deals in the sector including the $60B tie-up between Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) and BG Group, Canadian Oil Sands and Suncor EnergyEnergy , as well as a handful that fell through including the proposed merger between Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR). But these are hardly normal circumstances and don’t expect the oil price rout to trigger a […]