Devon Said to Mull M&A Options With Marathon, CrownRock (1)

Devon Energy Corp., an Oklahoma City-based oil and gas company, is studying major acquisition targets as it seeks to gain scale in US shale, according to people familiar with the matter.

Devon has held preliminary talks in recent months about a combination with Marathon Oil Corp., said the people who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. The companies are complementary because both operate in a handful of basins in the Midwestern US, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. Marathon has a market value of about $17.5 billion.

Separately, Devon has been looking at CrownRock LP, ...