Oil and gas producer Marathon Oil Corp’s plans to buy a small Oklahoma producer is the latest signal U.S. shale companies are pouncing on properties in the state’s high margin STACK basin as the price of oil rebounds. Marathon Oil said Monday it would purchase PayRock Energy Holdings LLC for $888 million from venture capital firm EnCap Investments. PayRock currently produces about 9,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day in the Anadarko Basin STACK play in Oklahoma. The deal comes after Devon Energy Corp’s recent buy of about 80,000 net surface acres in the STACK play from privately held Felix Energy – also part of EnCap’s portfolio – for $1.9 billion. The STACK, or Sooner Trend Anadarko Basin Canadian and Kingfisher Counties play, lies in the Anadarko Basin, which covers about 60,000 square miles in western […]