Anadarko Petroleum Co. completed its $16.4 billion purchase of Oklahoma City, OK-based oil and natural gas producer Kerr-McGee last Thursday after shareholders for Kerr-McGee approved the transaction.

Houston-based Anadarko announced in June that it would buy Kerr-McGee, as well as pick up Denver, CO-based producer Western Gas Resources in a $4.7 billion transaction. The two deals would significantly increase its oil and gas holdings in the Gulf of Mexico and Rocky Mountain region (see NGI, June 26).

The favorable vote by the Kerr-McGee stockholders followed the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent approval of Anadarko’s proposed $21.1 billion acquisition of Kerr-McGee and Western Gas Resources. The buyout cleared the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust waiting period, with the FTC imposing no restrictions on the deal, according to the companies.

Anadarko said it plans to close its merger with Western Gas Resources “as soon as practicable” after receiving clearance from Wyoming regulators and the approval of Western Gas shareholders at a special meeting scheduled for Aug. 23.

Anadarko’s purchase of Kerr-McGee and Western Gas Resources is the eighth-largest energy deal of all time, according to Thomson Financial, behind BP Amoco’s 1999 acquisition of ARCO, and ahead of last year’s Chevron Texaco-Unocal pairing.

Kerr-McGee’s domestic exploration and production activities are focused in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and onshore. Western Gas producing properties are located primarily in Wyoming, including the developing Powder River Basin coalbed methane play and the rapidly growing Pinedale Anticline. Western Gas also is involved in gas gathering, processing, transporting and marketing.

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