When Occidental and Chevron started the bidding war to buy Anadarko this spring, analysts predicted that it was the beginning of a wave of consolidation in the largest U.S. shale basin, the Permian. The true consolidation has yet to come, but since this spring, conditions have become more advantageous for Big Oil to take over smaller players in the basin in order to grow their position and production even more. Despite OPEC’s efforts to prop up the price of oil and despite U.S. sanctions taking more than 2 million barrels of oil per…
