By Oasis Petroleum Inc. and Whiting Petroleum Corp. are close to a deal to merge, according to people familiar with the matter.
The all-stock tie-up between the rival North Dakota shale drillers could be unveiled early this week, the people said, assuming the talks don’t fall apart. The companies combined would be worth roughly $6 billion, given Oasis’
OAS,
+8.18%
market value of $2.8 billion and Whiting’s
WLL,
+5.67%,
which stands at $3.3 billion.
It would be the first significant tie-up among oil companies in several months, after a string of them in recent years, and comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roils energy markets and causes crude prices to surge.
Oasis and Whiting have both been streamlining their holdings recently and benefited from rising oil prices in the past few months along with the rest of the industry. Both shares have been rising as oil prices have topped $100 a barrel in past weeks, and combining could help the companies take continued advantage of the surge.
Both companies had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after oil prices collapsed in 2020, following the worst of the pandemic-related economic downturn.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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