Oil and natgas producer Marathon Oil Corp said it agreed to buy PayRock Energy Holdings LLC for $888 million from venture capital firm EnCap Investments, boosting its presence in the Oklahoma basin.
Marathon Oil, which held about 265,000 net acres in Oklahoma, said in February it has allocated about 14 percent or $204 million of its 2016 capital spending to the basin.
PayRock, an Oklahoma and Kansas-focused portfolio company of EnCap Investments, has current production of about 9,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day in Oklahoma.
A near 57 percent plunge in oil prices has pushed down the valuation of oil acreages, making acquisitions more attractive.
Marathon had agreed to sell non-core assets for $950 million in April, bringing its total sales through divestitures to about $1.3 billion since last August.