Miscellaneous Energy Links From Last Week; Takeover Candidates; Road Construction In North Dakota

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On Friday, WallStCheatSheet identified Oasis as one of four companies that might be a takeover candidate:

In September, Oasis has reached agreements to add 161,000 acres in the Williston Basin, which includes the Bakken formation, providing it more real estate in the region relative to its $5.2-billion enterprise value than any similar-sized rival, said data compiled by Bloomberg. Now that Oasis is one of the largest landholders in the biggest continuous shale-oil deposit in the United States, and Sterne Agee Group Inc. said that it might entice takeover interest.

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Bloomberg also reported on Friday:

No explorer in the oil-rich Bakken shale formation offers more bang for the buck than Oasis Petroleum Inc. 

Oasis this month signed agreements to add 161,000 acres in the Williston Basin, which includes the Bakken formation, giving it more real estate in the region relative to its $5.2 billion enterprise value than any similar-sized competitor, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With Oasis now one of the biggest landholders in the largest continuous shale-oil deposit in the U.S., Sterne Agee Group Inc. said it may lure takeover interest.

Companies mentioned: Statoil and Repsol. And more:

Oasis agreed this month to spend about $1.5 billion on four separate acquisitions of assets in the Williston formation, which encompasses the Bakken and Three Forks shale formations, boosting its holdings by 49 percent to 492,000 acres. After the deal, the company will be the seventh-largest holder of Bakken acreage, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Oasis’s enlarged Bakken position signals its “commitment to be a pure-play” and makes the company more enticing to acquirers, Tim Rezvan, a New York-based analyst at Sterne Agee, wrote in a Sept. 10 report.

“The Bakken naturally comes to the top of everybody’s list” for U.S. oil-play acquisitions, Andrew Coleman, a Houston-based analyst at Raymond James, said in a phone interview. Oasis has “a nice footprint of acreage. As you get to a position that is closer to a top-five position in the Bakken, the bigger guys, the international guys may want to come in.” 

Much more at the link. 

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MDU press release last Monday re: road construction in North Dakota:

Knife River Corp., a subsidiary of MDU Resources Group Inc., has received a $51 million North Dakota highway construction contract for a bypass project on Highway 85. This is the largest road construction contract Knife River has been awarded in the state.