ExxonMobil to acquire XTO Energy for $41 billion

ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly-traded company, is acquiring XTO Energy Inc., the largest independent gas producer from shale fields in the US, in an all-stock transaction valued at $41 billion, including $10 billion of existing XTO debt.

The transaction is based on the closing share prices of ExxonMobil and XTO on 11 December 2009.

In making its first acquisition since 2006 and its largest since the merger of Exxon and Mobil, the Irving, Texas-based ExxonMobil, will be profiting from green technology as well as increase its resource base by about 10 per cent.

Under the terms of the agreement signed yesterday, ExxonMobil has agreed to issue 0.7098 common shares for each common share of XTO, representing premium of 25 per cent to XTO stockholders.

XTO is a domestic oil and natural gas producer engaged in upstream oil and gas development in the US. Its properties are concentrated in Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Louisiana and Montana.

With 2008 net income of $1.9 billion on revenues of $7.6 billion, the Fort Worth-based, XTO Energy has grown since inception in 1986 to one of the country's largest independent oil and gas producer having a domestic reserve base of more than 2.06 billion barrels of oil equivalent.