Goldman leads oil M&A value as RBC retains volume crown

By James Calloway

Goldman Sachs advised on six oil and gas M&A transactions worth a combined $56 billion in Q1-Q3 2026, the highest deal value in GlobalData’s latest league table.

RBC Capital Markets ranked first by volume, with 17 transactions, and held the same volume position it had during Q1-Q3 2025.

Which advisers lead by deal value?

GlobalData’s Deals Database placed Goldman first on $56 billion. The next four by aggregate value were:

• JPMorgan — $38.7 billion.
• Barclays — $38.2 billion.
• Evercore — $31.8 billion.
• RBC Capital Markets — $29.8 billion.

Goldman’s lead came from six transactions, four of which were billion-dollar deals. Two were worth more than $10 billion each, giving the bank the largest total despite ranking well below RBC by transaction count.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs’ ranking by value improved from fourth to the top spot given that there was more than a double-fold jump in the total value of deals it advised on.”

Bose also put RBC’s position this way: “RBC Capital Markets was the top adviser by volume during Q1-Q3 2025 and managed to retain its leadership position by this metric during Q1-Q3 2026 as well.”

Goldman’s result reflects exposure to a few very large mandates, not a higher count of transactions.

What does the value-volume split mean for practitioners?

For upstream operators and midstream asset owners, the volume table shows adviser activity by transaction count, while the value table shows the scale of the mandates in each book. RBC’s 17 transactions lead on frequency; Goldman’s six include two above $10 billion and lead on aggregate value.

Neither metric identifies the basin, play, refinery or terminal behind a mandate. The released data does not name Goldman’s six transactions or RBC’s 17, and it does not identify the buyers, sellers or asset locations.

For deal teams, the tables can help point to banks with sector mandates and experience at the upper end of ticket size. They cannot replace checks on the assets, counterparties, timing and conditions of an individual transaction.

The tables show adviser scale, but transaction-level work still determines which assets, plays or facilities a mandate covered.

How does the rest of the field compare by volume?

The volume ranking was:

• RBC Capital Markets — 17 deals, first.
• Jefferies — 14 deals, second.
• Morgan Stanley — 11 deals.
• Moelis & Company — 11 deals.
• Barclays — 9 deals.

Goldman’s six transactions put it outside the disclosed top five volume positions. Barclays ranked third by value and fifth by count. Jefferies ranked second by count but did not appear in the five-firm value list.

RBC led on transaction count, while Goldman led on value through four billion-dollar deals and two transactions above $10 billion.

How does GlobalData build the ranking?

GlobalData says its league tables track deals in real time across thousands of company websites, adviser websites and other reliable secondary sources. A dedicated team of analysts monitors those sources and gathers in-depth information for each deal, including adviser names.

The company also seeks deal submissions from leading advisers to strengthen the data. Because the database follows mandates as they develop and accepts adviser submissions, the table aims to capture advisory activity more fully than a simple announcement count. The rankings still depend on source coverage and the timing of reported deal values.

The league table does not supply operating measures such as bpd, reserves, drilling depth or terminal throughput. Its dollar figures also should not be treated as asset valuations or oil-price forecasts without the underlying deal records.

The league table measures advisory mandates and their reported values; it does not measure the oil and gas assets behind them.

What should market participants watch?

The watch item is the next GlobalData league table: Q4 2026 mandates could narrow Goldman’s value lead over JPMorgan or RBC’s three-deal volume lead over Jefferies before the full-year ranking is set.