Whiting Petroleum agreed to buy Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. for $3.8 billion, a deal that will create the largest oil producer in the Bakken shale. Via Bloomberg, Whiting will surpass Continental Resources as the dominant oil supplier and Exxon Mobil as the second-biggest leaseholder in the Bakken pending completion of the deal. Kodiak doubled production last year while Whiting’s output growth was slowed by rising costs. The deal will give Whiting more than 107,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production and drilling rights across 855,000 net acres.
Whiting’s senior management will lead the combined company. Kodiak Chairman and CEO Lynn A. Peterson and Executive Vice President James Catlin will join Whiting’s board of directors. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
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