Wealthy investors seek oil and gas assets, but bargains are scarce

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Ultra-high-net-worth investors and family offices are showing more interest in mineral rights and other oil and gas assets, driven by the energy pressures of the Iran war and the artificial-intelligence boom, according to investment advisors. But it has become harder to find deals at attractive valuations due to increased competition from institutional investors and private-equity firms, they said.

Family offices were able to make opportunistic plays in oil and gas in the years after the Covid pandemic as traditional investors backed away from the sector due to pressure from environmentally conscious stakeholders.

Now, dealmaking in the space is seeing a resurgence, with oil and gas deal spend for the first half of 2026 hitting a two-year record, according to research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. The boost was especially striking for gas production projects, with deal spend in that sector exceeding $32 billion, the highest level in over a decade, the firm found.

“It’s a seller’s market,” said Jeff Peterson, chief investment officer of single-family office Gillon Capital.

Peterson, who has managed investments for a branch of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt’s descendants for 14 years, added that in addition to the increased competition, volatility in commodity prices has also made it hard to transact.

Since the beginning of June, Brent crude has traded as low as $70.14 a barrel and as high as $102, a spread of about 45%. It jumped almost 10% in a single session in July.

As investors take a longer-term view of energy demand, infrastructure plays like pipelines and export facilities have garnered interest, according to Andrew Dock, head of energy wealth management for Bank of America.

“It’s not a cyclical play. This isn’t a commodity trade anymore. It’s a structural shift,” Dock said.

However, there’s a limited number of infrastructure opportunities coming to market due to constraints such as permitting timelines and construction complexity, Dock said.

Even in a crowded market, family offices can still carve out a niche with investments worth less than $100 million, said Cody Carper, partner and co-chair of the oil and gas practice at law firm Baker Botts.

“A family office can dive in and buy a $30 million non-operated asset that’s really kind of undervalued because there’s just not a huge buyer universe that is focused on that band of value,” he said.

Peter Suberlak, director of investments at Tolleson Wealth Management, said clients typically aren’t betting on price swings but rather looking to hedge against inflation and obtain relatively predictable cash flow.

He added that investors often look for stakes in mature fields with producing wells, where experienced operators can reduce costs or improve production, offering reliable income and upside potential

“Generally in the family office space, because you have such a longer investment term horizon, it allows you to have enough time for the real value creation pieces to come out,” he said. “It’s so difficult to predict commodity prices and where we are in the cycle, and so it’s prudent to favor these more quality cash-flow investments where the returns don’t necessarily depend completely on getting the macro call exactly right.”