The soaring oil price did little to stimulate mergers and acquisitions activity in the oil and gas industry last year, according to the leading study of deals in the sector, to be published on Wednesday.

The survey from John S. Herold, a research firm, and Standard Chartered, a bank, also found that the prices paid for oil and gas reserves were little changed from 2006 levels, even though oil on the commodities markets rose 55 per cent during the year.