Any sale of Occidental Petroleum Corp’s roughly 330,000 acres in North Dakota’s oil-rich Bakken shale formation would make strategic sense for the company, which is likely eager to strike a deal, two analysts said on Tuesday. Oxy is looking to sell its Bakken holdings, which are largely undeveloped, for as much as $3 billion, according to a report from Bloomberg News. Even with the recent dip in crude oil prices, the divestment “makes sense to us, strategically,” Raymond James analysts Pavel Molchanov and Kevin Smith said in a note to clients on Tuesday. “This is substantially undeveloped acreage, and Occidental has long cited it as a likely monetization candidate, so it’s been puzzling why the company kept it this long,” the analysts said. Oxy is spending about $510 million this year on its North Dakota holdings, and any buyer would have to invest significant capital […]