NorthAmOil: ConocoPhillips to buy Marathon Oil Corp. for $22.5bn

ConocoPhillips has agreed to buy Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp. for $22.5bn in an all-stock deal inclusive of $5.4bn of net debt. Consolidation has swept the US oil and gas sector.

The deal further enhances ConocoPhillips’ premier Lower 48 portfolio, said the companies. It will add highly complementary acreage to ConocoPhillips’ existing US onshore portfolio, adding more than 2bn barrels of resource with an estimated average point forward cost of supply of less than $30 per barrel WTI.

There is significant asset overlap in South Texas, in the Eagle Ford and in North Dakota, said analysts. Marathon also operates in the STACK/SCOOP and Permian plays.