Devon has held preliminary talks in recent months about a combination with Marathon Oil Corp, sources said. — Bloomberg
Oklahoma City: Devon Energy Corp, an Oklahoma City-based oil and gas company, is studying major acquisition targets as it seeks to gain scale in US shale, according to people familiar with the matter.
Devon has held preliminary talks in recent months about a combination with Marathon Oil Corp, said the people who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. The companies are complementary because both operate in a handful of basins in the midwestern US, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Marathon has a market value of about US$17.5bil.
Separately, Devon has been looking at CrownRock LP, a closely held company active in the Permian Basin, the biggest and most productive oil field in the United States, the people said. CrownRock has been for sale and could fetch more than US$10bil, the people said.
No final decision has been made and Devon could opt against pursuing either target, the people added.
Devon rose 0.3% to close at US$50.08 in New York trading Wednesday, giving the company a market value of about US$32bil.
The stock has fallen about 19% this year. Marathon rose as much as 4.6% in post-market trading while Devon fell as much as 2.8%. — Bloomberg
