Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) is offering $34.75 per unit in cash for DCP Midstream (NYSE: DCP) it doesn’t already own. That follows Phillips’ swap of crude oil assets for natural gas related infrastructure owned by Canadian midstream company Enbridge Inc (TSX: ENB, NYSE: ENB).

For both companies, this deal making is about increasing scale and therefore efficiency in areas they’ve chosen to focus on. For Phillips, consolidating DCP follows the pattern of its 2021 buyout of Phillips 66 Partners, reducing cost of capital to fund further expansion. And S&P has now upgraded DCP Midstream’s credit rating to BBB+ from BBB- in anticipation of full asset integration.

Let’s be clear. Neither oil and gas prices nor energy stocks will be immune if the global economy slides into recession later this year. And damage to prices would be compounded if Russian, Iranian and/or Venezuelan oil re-enters the market in a meaningful way.

But that said, what the Federal Reserve and other central banks are attempting now to quell inflation will not end the energy up-cycle that began in spring 2020. Neither would a return to the market of supply from what are currently pariah countries.

In fact, any energy sector retreat we see in coming months is far more likely to result in the long-term cycle being both longer and stronger. And means much higher prices for favored stocks than we saw at the top of the up-cycle that ended in 2014.