⁍ The purchase would propel ConocoPhillips to the ranks of the top producers in the Permian Basin.

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⁍ It also would make it the largest U.S. independent, pumping 1.5 million barrels per day.

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⁍ The sector has been consolidating after many shale producers borrowed in a bet on higher prices.

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⁍ Prices tanked instead, leaving shale investors with little to show for the rising output and companies struggling to pay down debts.

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– ConocoPhillips is buying Concho Resources in an all-stock deal worth $9.7 billion as the energy sector continues to consolidate amid lower fuel prices and demand, Reuters reports. shale oil producer Concho Resources Inc for $9.7 billion, as the energy sector continued to consolidate amid lower fuel prices and demand. The low-premium, all-stock deal comes as many US shale companies have been mired in losses due to weak crude prices and, unlike in past downturns, have struggled to raise new capital to restructure heavy debts. The deal swaps 1.46 shares of ConocoPhillips for each Concho share, an about 1.5% premium over its Friday price. Concho shares on Monday morning were up a fraction at $48.65. They sold for as much as $93 a share in January before the COVID-19 pandemic cut oil demand and prices. “Size, Scope, and scale’ has become more important,’ said Concho Chief Executive Timothy Leach, who once the deal closes will run the combined company’s US production excluding Alaska. “This combination with ConocoPhillips was the best thing for our shareholders.” The purchase would propel ConocoPhillips to the ranks of the top producers in the Permian Basin, the prime US oilfield, which stretches from West Texas to southeastern New Mexico. It also would make it the largest US independent, pumping 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd). Concho pumps about 319,000 bpd, from wells spread across more than half a million acres. Conoco is a major producer in two other US shale fields but pumps about 50,000 bpd in the Permian.