The second half of 2014 will see some operators digging in and expanding through smallish bolt-on acquisitions in the Eagle Ford. Others will need to fight through slow deal flow in the hot shales.

And some companies are set on ditching entire states.

The next five months or so of acquisitions and divestitures (A&D) activity is shaping to be an odd bag, according to recent company presentations delivered in Denver.

August has been the dead period between earnings and Labor Day. Sentiment among executives, bankers and investors is that the oil and gas IPO boom is largely over, with only a few more on the way, said David Tameron, a senior analyst with Wells Fargo Securities LLC. While most executives continue to expect consolidation in key shale plays, some think nearly every company is so stocked with inventory that activity has to slow.

Executives say “it will be at least two to three years before we see a wave,” Tameron said.

Companies such as QEP Resources (NYSE: QEP) have divestitures remaining in Oklahoma as they eye the Permian Basin acreage they acquired last year. On Aug. 4, the company began shopping its 37,000 net acres there, including significant acreage in the liquids-rich Scoop Woodford Shale. Estimated net production is 8.3 million cubic feet equivalent per day, 38% of which is liquids.

QEP’s Richard J. Doleshek, executive vice president and CFO, said the company is also planning to market its Arkoma package in the fourth quarter of 2014 along with a smaller scattering of Oklahoma acreage.

“Hopefully by the fourth quarter we’ll be totally out of Oklahoma,” Doleshek said.

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: GDP) is looking to secure a joint venture (JV) partner in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) and sell noncore assets, Tameron said.

The “likely candidate for asset sale remains the East Texas Cotton Valley asset. Management hopes to have something in place for both by year-end with proceeds directed toward ramping activity in the TMS, with potentially an eight-rig program,” he said.

By year-end, TMS oil production should surpass Eagle Ford oil production, but Tameron said de-risking and reserve bookings are needed in the TMS before the company considers an Eagle Ford divestiture.

Two Eagle Ford exploration and production (E&P) companies also are looking at the future of deals.

At Diamondback Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FANG), management appears to see deal flow ebbing as asset packages slow and many of the “cleaner” deals are done. What waits are more complex and expensive transactions, Tameron said.

The situation is stickier at Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: COG). Cabot is looking at acreage bolt-ons in the Eagle Ford while juggling its infrastructure needs in the Marcellus. The company needs to build a pipeline, but federal regulators have pushed back the timing of a final environmental impact statement until Oct. 24.

Cabot's management is open to considering allocating free cash flow from the Marcellus toward the Eagle Ford. Any additions to the Eagle Ford would be weighed on their own economic merits, separate from the Marcellus delays.

Jay Ottoson, president and COO at SM Energy Co. (NYSE: SM), seems confident in the position his company has built. SM has reaped $1.5 billion in asset sales in the past three or four years.

In July, the company said it would buy 61,000 net acres in the Bakken/Three Forks for $330 million. The deal gives SM an average 3,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day, 91% of which is oil.

Along with the Powder River Basin, the acquisition puts an “oily growth ramp in front of us,” Ottoson said.

Tameron said SM continues to be successful in finding smaller acreage additions.