ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil get second US FTC request over $22.5 bln deal

Marathon Oil

12/07/2024 11:59

July 12 (Reuters) - Top U.S. independent oil producer
ConocoPhillips  COP.N  said on Friday it received a second
request from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for information
on its proposed acquisition of rival Marathon Oil  MRO.N .
    ConocoPhillips said both companies received the requests on
July 11 and are working with the FTC to review the merger. 
    
    CONTEXT 
    Conoco said in May it would pay $22.5 billion in stock for
Marathon Oil to boost its output and achieve greater economies
of scale in U.S. shale fields and in liquefied natural gas. 
    Its deal followed Exxon Mobil's  XOM.N  $60 billion
acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, Chevron's  CVX.N 
proposed $53 billion merger with Hess, Chesapeake Energy's
 CHK.O  $7.4 billion purchase of Southwestern Energy and
Occidental Petroleum's  OXY.N  $12 billion bid for CrownRock. 
    
    WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
    The request for additional information is likely to slow the
closing of the deal. ConocoPhillips had said in May a
"conservative" estimate of when the deal will close is the
fourth quarter of this year, putting off a full realization of
the expected cost savings and benefits from shared equipment and
staff. It reiterated the timeframe on Friday. 
    The two companies have operations in West Texas, South Texas
and North Dakota's shale fields. 
    
    BY THE NUMBERS 
    The Conoco-Marathon combination would create a company
pumping 2.26 million barrels of oil and gas per day, and add
1.32 billion barrels of proved reserves to ConocoPhillips' 6.8
billion. 
    The offer of 0.255 shares of ConocoPhillips for each share
of Marathon represented a 14.7% premium to the company's
pre-deal closing price.

 (Reporting by Gary McWilliams and Sourasis Bose; Editing by
Krishna Chandra Eluri)
 ((Gary.McWilliams@thomsonreuters.com; +1 469-691-7668;))