Occidental Petroleum to expand Permian Operations with $12 billion deal for CrownRock

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Dec 11 (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) said on Monday it would buy energy producer CrownRock in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $12 billion including debt, expanding in the lucrative Permian basin.

Investors are pressing oil and gas producers to expand their inventories following Exxon Mobil's (XOM.N) $60 billion deal for Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD.N) and Chevron's $53 billion agreement for Hess (HES.N) in October.

Houston-based Occidental will finance the purchase of privately-held oil and gas producer CrownRock with $9.1 billion of new debt, the issuance of about $1.7 billion of common equity and the assumption of CrownRock's $1.2 billion of existing debt.

The CrownRock deal would be Occidental's first major acquisition since its widely criticized and debt-laden purchase of rival Anadarko Petroleum in 2019.

Occidental had about $18.60 billion in debt as of Sept. 30, according to a company filing.

The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2024, will immediately add to Occidental's free cash flow and give the company more than 94,000 net acres in the Midland basin of Texas - part of the Permian, the largest U.S. oil-producing area.

Shares of Occidental fell 1.2% in premarket trading.

Reuters first reported in September that CrownRock was preparing to explore a sale that could value it at well over $10 billion including debt.

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Supposedly Chevron, Conoco and Devon were all looking at purchasing CrownRock over the past few month. Some speculation even about Shell, as it’s rumored they regret selling completely out of US onshore, especially Permian, to focus investment on the “energy transition”.