U.S. Shale Mergers Continue with ConocoPhillips-Marathon Mega Deal

The U.S. oil industry saw its latest announcement of a big merger this week after ConocoPhillips said it had agreed to buy Marathon Oil in an all-stock deal with an enterprise value of $22.5 billion, inclusive of $5.4 billion of net debt.    The rationale behind the latest deal in the shale patch is slightly different from those of the previously announced transactions. But just as in earlier M&A agreements, the latest acquisition also bets on scaling up drilling inventory for the long term.  But above all, the ConocoPhillips-Marathon…