Whiting Petroleum Corp. (WLL) ’s $3.8 billion purchase of Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (KOG) will create the dominant crude-oil producer in the richest U.S. shale region as energy explorers seek access to future drilling opportunities. Kodiak stockholders will receive 0.177 of a Whiting share for each Kodiak share they own, which is the equivalent of $13.90 based on the acquirer’s July 11 price , the Denver-based companies said in a statement yesterday. Including $2.2 billion in debt, the total transaction is valued at about $6 billion. The agreement will vault Whiting ahead of Oklahoma billionaire Harold Hamm ’s Continental Resources Inc. as the premier oil supplier in the Bakken shale formation in the northern Great Plains. Whiting is buying a company that more than doubled production last year while Whiting’s own output growth slowed as costs to bring new wells online surged. Competition for Bakken assets is fierce […]