Buyout

ExxonMobil Corp. regained the top spot in a ranking of the 50 largest listed energy companies in 2010, lifted by its buyout of XTO Energy Inc. and a 7% gain in share price growth, according to the PFC Energy 50 annual ranking.

Fort Worth, TX-based Quicksilver Resources Inc. — which makes a specialty of targeting unconventional reservoirs, including gas shales — said more than half of its capital budget for 2011 of $455 million will be spent in Texas.

EXCO Resources Inc. CEO Douglas Miller has proposed a buyout of the company at $20.50/share cash, the Dallas-based natural gas-focused exploration and production company said Monday. Oilman T. Boone Pickens as well as two investment firms are said to be in on the offer, which is worth $4.36 billion.

Global buyout firm TPG Capital said Wednesday it has launched Petro Harvester Oil & Gas LLC (Harvester) to purchase North American oil and natural gas properties.

Constellation Energy Group is facing a wave of lawsuits from shareholders who are seeking to block the company’s $4.7 billion buyout by Berkshire Hathaway’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. and who claim that Constellation Energy inflated its financial results and intentionally mislead investors.

EnCana Corp. last week upped its stakes in East Texas with the $2.55 billion buyout of its closely held partner in the Amoruso Field located in the Deep Bossier natural gas play in East Texas, a play that CEO Randy Eresman called “the best emerging unconventional gas play in North America.”

Approximately 98% of voting stockholders of Houston-based Whittier Energy Corp. have approved the buyout of Whittier by Sterling Energy plc for an estimated $188 million, including $11 per Whittier share plus assumption of $43 million of Whittier liabilities. The merger was expected to close March 28. Whittier Energy is an independent oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) company with operations in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The company also holds nonoperated interests in fields located in the Gulf Coast, Oklahoma, Wyoming and California. Sterling Energy is an independent E&P company formed in October 2002 and listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. Sterling has built a portfolio of production assets in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore West Africa, and has an active exploration program focused predominantly on Africa. Sterling has expanded its U.S. operations to include onshore Texas and the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Shares of Spinnaker Exploration Co. soared more than 30% Monday after the company said it agreed to a $2.56 billion buyout by Oslo, Norway-based Norsk Hydro, which covets Spinnaker’s Gulf of Mexico assets, deepwater prospects and 3-D seismic data.

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