ConocoPhillips in advanced talks to buy Marathon Oil

ConocoPhillips is in advanced talks to buy Marathon Oil in a potential all-stock deal that would value the Houston-based target company at a little over its current $15bn market value, people briefed on the matter said.

Report informs citing The Financial Times that a deal appeared to be imminent late on Tuesday night but there was still a risk the negotiations would fall apart or that a rival bidder would gatecrash Conoco’s takeover plan.

The transaction would be the latest in a series of mega deals that have reshaped the US energy sector over the past eight months, as large oil companies seek to snap up the country’s best remaining shale resources and consolidate a once-fragmented sector.

ExxonMobil and Chevron last October both agreed massive acquisitions, with price tags of $60bn and $53bn respectively, sparking a wave of transactions across the sector, with companies including Occidental Petroleum and Diamondback Energy following suit.

Conoco — the biggest independent producer globally with a market capitalisation of about $139bn — has been vying with its smaller rival Devon Energy to acquire Marathon for several weeks, three people briefed on the matter said. Shares in Marathon climbed 6 per cent in pre-market trading in New York on Wednesday. Bloomberg reported in October that Devon had held preliminary talks about a combination with Marathon.

Conoco and Marathon did not respond to requests for comment about the prospective tie-up.