ExxonMobil has agreed to acquire rival oil exploration firm XTO Energy, in an all-stock transaction valued at $41 billion.
The biggest US oil group said the deal would 'enhance ExxonMobil's position in the development of unconventional natural gas and oil resources'.
The transaction includes the assumption of $10 billion in XTO debt and offers shareholders a 25% premium to the most recent stock price.
The deal, one of the biggest of 2009, has been approved by the boards of both firms and requires XTO stockholder approval and regulatory clearance.
XTO has rights to some 45 trillion cubic feet of gas including shale gas, tight gas, coal bed methane and shale oil. These will complement ExxonMobil's holdings in the US, Canada, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Argentina.
Company officials hope to close the deal in the second quarter of 2010 and then establish a new upstream organisation to manage production of unconventional resources and use of new oil exploration technology.
ExxonMobil is among the world's largest publicly traded firms and has posted record earnings for a corporation over the past two years, with 2008 profits of over $45 billion.
The company has been a target for critics who argue that it has profited from consumer woes in the face of high energy costs, and from others who say it has done too little to address environmental and climate concerns.
