May wasn’t a perfect return to A&D form for upstream companies, but it wasn’t bad either.

After about 24 deals for the month, E&P companies are continuing to see a steady trickle of deal activity in June.

Clayton Williams Energy Inc. (CWEI) said June 17 it sold rights to 3,700 undeveloped Eagle Ford acres in Burleson County, Texas, for cash consideration of $22.1 million. The Midland, Texas, company will use the proceeds to resume drilling in the Permian and Eagle Ford.

Also on June 17, Ring Energy Inc. (REI) launched a stock offering to fund the purchase of its Permian acquisition of 14,000 net acres in Culberson and Reeves counties, Texas, for $75 million. The stock offering is essentially a way to pay the check after its May deal.

The transactions are the spillover from an active May, when upstream deals had their strongest showing since December. Upstream oil and gas deals, including mergers, acquisitions and capital market transactions, totaled $23.5 billion from 114 transactions, according to GlobalData, a research and consulting firm.

“Buyers appear more aggressive to take advantage of market conditions,” said Matthew Jurecky, GlobalData’s head of oil and gas research and consulting.

In May, North America led the global acquisitions market with $12 billion from 35 deals. The 26 deals announced totaled $11.9 billion. Nine were completed, totaling $76.2 million.

Deals got a jumpstart May 11, when Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) said it would buy Rosetta Resources Inc. (ROSE) for $3.9 billion in an all-stock deal that includes assumption of Rosetta’s $1.8 billion debt.

So far, the pace of June deals has been fair.

One highlight was Gulfport Energy Corp.’s (GPOR) purchase of Utica acreage in three transactions from American Energy-Utica LLC (AEU) for $407 million. Collectively, the company acquired 35,325 net acres in the Utica dry gas window in Ohio and associated assets and transportation commitments.

Clayton Williams' deal isn’t flashy, but it paves the way for the company to get back in the oil patch. The Burleson County divestiture represents about 3% of the company’s acreage. At a sales price of $5,972 per acre, Clayton Williams' sale skirts requirements for a continuous development program on the acreage by late October.

The company retained its rights to all depths and formations other than the Eagle Ford formation and also retained its interest in acreage and production associated with the Porter E Unit #1, the company’s only Eagle Ford well situated on the acreage.

Proceeds from the sale were used to reduce debt and will partially fund increased 2015 drilling, said Andrew Smith, senior analyst, Global Hunter Securities. He said the company is back in the saddle after cutting its rigs from six to none.

But Clayton Williams also said it plans to resume drilling operations with a rig drilling horizontal Wolfcamp wells on the its 66,000 net acre position in the southern Delaware Basin in Reeves County, Texas, and another drilling horizontal Eagle Ford wells on the company’s 170,000 net acre block in Robertson, Burleson, Lee and Bastrop counties, Texas.

Drilling and completion costs with the rigs in 2015 are expected to total $35 million and will be financed by incremental borrowings, Clayton Williams said.

Prior to Ring Energy's stock offering, the company secured a commitment letter with SunTrust Bank to amend Ring’s five year senior secured revolving credit facility. On June 1, the company had $17.5 million available in credit. Ring said in SEC filings that Suntrust will increase its maximum credit from $150 million to $500 million, with an initial borrowing base of $100 million.

It’s unclear about the size of the offering, and the stocks have not been priced. Part of the proceeds will also be used for general corporate purposes.

The REI deal was first announced May 26.

Contact the author, Darren Barbee, at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.