(Reuters) - Whiting Petroleum Corp on Sunday said it would acquire Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp in an all-stock deal valued at $6 billion, and thereby become the largest producer in the Bakken/Three Forks oil formations.
Whiting said the deal, which includes assumption of Kodiak's net debt of $2.2 billion, was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
The companies' combined output from the Bakken/Three Forks formations in the first quarter of 2014 was over 107,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with 855,000 combined net acres and almost 3,500 net future drilling locations.
The formations, located within the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana, are among the largest oil plays in the United States.
(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Sandra Maler)
