A recovery in the price of oil to more than two-year highs is offering a long-awaited opening to companies and private equity firms to shed unloved assets in the U.S. oil patch. Sales of land parcels worth $6.9 billion have been announced in the first five months of 2021, almost eclipsing the $7 billion recorded in all of 2020, according to data vendor Enverus. Last year was the worst for U.S. acreage sales since at least 2006, after energy prices plunged due to coronavirus-related demand destruction. More deals are on the way. Land worth more than $12 billion is either up for sale or being prepared to come to market in the United States, according to more than a dozen investment bankers and industry sources interviewed by Reuters. A 43% rise in U.S. crude prices this year to their highest since October 2018 has made unloved acreage desirable enough […]