If there’s a soul alive in the shale business who hasn’t heard of Harold Hamm, well, God bless your heart. The CEO of Okla. City-based Continental Resources is not only legend among American wildcatters who bet big and won big, he could also well be the GOAT of modern times....

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the C-suite when “advanced talks” of a potential merger conclude with a final agreement. There’s a certain romanticism to the dance—at least one can envision—when negotiations are at last settled, and a hard-fought deal is ultimately reached that promises more bounties ahead....

While the window may be closing on more gazillion-dollar deals to be had in the Permian, save for Exxon breathing dragon fire on Oxy with a Mewbourne Oil and Gas chaser, the next wave of land grabs could soon emerge from the noncore assets inherited with those mergers....