Europe’s biggest independent oil companies are flush with energy assets, but battered by the collapse of crude prices . Investors are now betting on which one could be the next big acquisition target, following Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s deal earlier this month to buy BG Group PLC for $70 billion. Many analysts have been predicting a wave of deals in the wake of that blockbuster and after last year’s sharp fall in the price of oil . Europe’s bevy of exploration and production companies sits at the top of the list of potential targets. Those include Tullow Oil PLC, the U.K.’s largest independent oil explorer; Genel Energy PLC, which produces crude in Kurdistan; and Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum AB, which has a stake in a huge new North Sea development. Investors are expecting deals in the U.S. as well. Possible prey include some of the relatively small but highly […]