Oil company ExxonMobil is reportedly planning to take over American peer Pioneer Natural Resources. Exxon would be willing to pay about 60 billion dollars (57 billion euros) for this.
Pioneer is mainly present in the US state of Texas, where it produces large quantities of shale oil. Oil is extracted from rock using a technique called fracking.
Texas and the neighboring state of New Mexico are home to one of the country’s most important oil fields. Although Exxon itself is also present there, Pioneer produces more. Pioneer, founded in 1997, also produces gas.
ExxonMobil is one of the largest oil companies in the world and made a record profit of $56 billion last year. This was mainly due to high oil and gas prices.
It has not yet been decided whether the deal will go through. It is possible that this will become clear in the coming days, anonymous sources report to the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal. Exxon and Pioneer declined to comment on the reports.
Oil companies have received a lot of criticism in recent years for doing too little to limit global warming. Exxon is also often under fire because they invest relatively little in sustainable energy.