Taqa sticks, Serica twists: What’s the landscape for North Sea M&A deals?

With Serica Energy looking outside of the UK North Sea for M&A deals and Taqa deciding to hold onto its UK assets, what are the implications for the market?

Serica Energy (LON: SQZ) recently explained that the windfall tax announced by the government in May has “added complexity” to the UK landscape. While Taqa spent more than a year deliberating over selling UK assets before deciding against the idea in the wake of surging oil and gas prices following Russia’s attack on Ukraine.