Woodside Petroleum Ltd , armed with $4.3 billion to spend to fill a gap in its growth prospects, sees the chance of snaring an acquisition improving as rivals step up asset sales and competing bidders dwindle.Australia's top oil and gas producer, which reported a record half-year profit on Wednesday, is cashed up after shareholders rejected a $2.68 billion plan to purchase back and cancel stock held by its top shareholder, Royal Dutch Shell .Woodside has resisted making acquisitions over the past two years as pricetags were too high, but Chief Executive Peter Coleman said there were now attractive opportunities as companies from Shell to the likes of Apache Corp offload assets."We do have a view that M&A opportunities are coming onto the market. They are better priced than what they were two years ago," Coleman told analysts and reporters on a conference call.
Apache Corporation (Apache) is an independent energy company, which explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. Shares of APA traded higher by 0.78% or $0.77/share to $99.27. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $75.07 and as high as $104.57. On average, 2844700 shares of APA exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 2441574.
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