Topeka Stirs Pot With Oil Industry Merger Speculation

Joining an increasingly popular guessing game on potential take-out targets in the oil and gas industry, an analyst published some further speculation Monday.

Topeka's Gabriele Sorbara added to a growing list of "most likely" companies that might get acquired:

• Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG)
• Energen Corporation (NYSE: EGN)
• Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FANG)
• Gulfport Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: GPOR)
• Laredo Petroleum Inc (NYSE: LPI)
• Magnum Hunter Resources Corp (NYSE: MHR)
• Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: OAS)

"All of them would require significant premiums" from would-be acquirers above their current share price, according to Sobara, who rates each of the companies at Buy.

Talk has been very cheap lately about potential oil patch mergers, but Forbes reported recently that deals in 2015 so far have been lagging compared with last year.

Through late February there have been seven deals in the upstream sector, totaling $443 million, versus 34 deals worth $12 billion during the first two months of 2014.

"Plenty of discussions are taking place, yet buyers and sellers cannot find common ground on where commodity prices will end up," Forbes reported.