ConocoPhillips to Acquire Marathon Oil in $22.5 Billion Deal

Original Article:

Source: Link

ConocoPhillips agreed on Wednesday to acquire its smaller rival, Marathon Oil, the latest deal in a wave of consolidation sweeping the oil industry. The burst of mergers and acquisitions has tracked a robust recovery in commodity prices, with the major players emboldened by record profits and high share prices. Conoco’s all-stock deal values Marathon at $22.5 billion, including debt. “Marathon has a high-quality asset base with adjacencies to our own assets that will lead to a straightforward integration and meaningful synergies,” Ryan Lance, Conoco’s chief executive, said in a call with analysts. Marathon’s operations are in some of the most sought-after oil fields in New Mexico, North Dakota and Texas; it also drills offshore of Equatorial Guinea. Many of those positions are near Conoco’s. Marathon traces its roots to the 19th century, and like ConocoPhillips, its predecessors were once part of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil empire. In 2011, Marathon Oil spun out its refinery business, which now operates as Marathon Petroleum.