NEW YORK: US oil company Occidental Petroleum has reached a deal to buy rival American energy producer CrownRock for $12 billion, it announced Monday in a statement.

The acquisition, which will strengthen Occidental’s position in the Permian Basin — the largest oil producing region in the United States — is the latest in a series of acquisitions made by energy giants in recent months as the sector consolidates.

The assets of privately-held CrownRock will expand Occidental’s scale in a region, including Permian’s Midland Basin, that has made Texas the top oil producing US state.

Occidental president and chief executive Vicki Hollub called the deal a “strategic fit.”