It's Acreage, Acreage, Acreage (Location, Location, Location) in the Bakken -- North Dakota, USA

About a year ago I realized that the most important metric in the Bakken was total acreage held, and started writing about this about six months ago. I forget exactly when.

As recently as July 10, 2011, I posted a note to that effect, linking a SeekingAlpha.com article.

Now today, I see we have a Reuters story that says exactly that: it's all about net acreage in the Bakken. 

Energy exploration companies like Range Resources, Whiting Petroleum Corp, and Cabot Oil and Gas Inc., have something that bigger oil companies desperately want: extensive acreage in U.S. shale basins.

Those companies and a long list of others are considered by Wall Street analysts to be takeover targets as a perfect storm for deal-making brews.

Sustained low natural gas prices have left some of the smaller companies vulnerable after they spent heavily to amass large areas to drill, while big companies are awash in cash. Crude prices around $100 per barrel have also piqued interest in companies that own acres in oil-rich basins like the Eagle Ford and Permian in Texas.

This is one of the better articles linked today. Read it to get ideas on which companies might be takeover targets. Reuters has missed a fair number of possibilities.