As Oklahoma prepares for a hard winter blast, the weather isn’t the main subject at hand for representatives of two major oil and gas companies—Oklahoma City’s Devon Energy and Houston’s Coterra Energy.
Talks of a possible merger by the two firms are said to be “advancing.”
One such report stated they were in “advanced merger talks” and if it came to fruition, the resulting company would “become one of the largest independent shale producers in the U.S.” For now, there are only reports and leadership at the two firms are not publicly talking about their intentions, nor just how far advanced they reportedly are in their discussions.
Devon Energy, a big player in the Permian Basin of southeast New Mexico, has seen its stock gain 6.4% in the past year. It also recorded large gains in the past 5 years and this week traded at nearly $37.75 per share following a 4% gain on Wednesday.
“In market terms, the companies involved are sizable. One report placed Devon’s market capitalization at roughly $24 billion and Coterra’s at roughly $20 billion at the time of publication. Market reaction reported in the same coverage reflected the typical spread associated with merger speculation: Coterra shares rose while Devon shares fell after the story became public. The coverage did not report a definitive agreement or specific economics, and it framed the situation as exploratory.”
But it must also be remembered that just because the two firms are in talks, doesn’t mean there will be a merger. Over the past few years of course, major oil and gas mergers have grabbed the headlines in the industry.
In 2025, there were 11 such transactions and according to Cleary Gottlieb, their value exceeded $30 billion and U.S. shale was the primary target. One of the key oil and gas deals was the $5.7 billion purchase of Encino assets by EOG Resources.
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