Liam Denning, Columnist

Exxon’s $64.5 Billion Shale Deal Doesn’t Need Antitrust Scrutiny

The second-largest US oil acquisition ever doesn’t present a meaningful threat of concentration in the global energy market.

October 11, 2023 at 4:23 PM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Exxon’s Pioneer deal will create the biggest operator in the Permian basin — Exxon’s Pioneer deal will create the biggest operator in the Permian basin
Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

A White House with a taste for trust-busting and an antipathy to fossil fuels must now weigh the second-largest US oil acquisition ever. The administration should wave it though and move on.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $64.5 billion deal for Pioneer Natural Resources Co., announced Wednesday, will create the biggest operator by far in the Permian basin, the heart of America’s shale boom. Planned joint production of about 2 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2027 means Exxon’s Permian output alone would rival the entire current production of BP Plc. This deal creates a new US major within Exxon, one of the world’s biggest oil majors already.