By Alimat Aliyeva

American oil companies ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil are negotiating a merger, Azernews reports.

Negotiations are at an advanced stage, Marathon Oil may be valued at $15 billion. It is noted that ConocoPhillips, which is the largest independent oil producing company in the world with a market capitalization of $ 139 billion, has been trying for several weeks to get agreement from Marathon Oil.

The same was achieved by Conoco's smaller competitor, Devon Energy. Six months ago, Devon Energy had already held preliminary talks with Marathon. If the Marathon purchase comes to fruition, it will be the largest deal for Conoco since 2020, when it bought Concho Resources for $10 billion. Marathon owns large fields in the United States, in particular, in North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, and it also owns a gas production business in Equatorial Guinea.

Experts note that large companies are seeking to acquire the best of the remaining assets in the shale industry and consolidate this rather fragmented sector. Last October, ExxonMobil and Chevron agreed large-scale deals worth $60 billion and $53 billion, respectively, thus launching a wave of deals in the sector.