It might seem logical WN (and it's exactly how I used to think...

It might seem logical WN (and it's exactly how I used to think when I first started investing), but it will never happen. These oil and gas majors aren't small-company brokers. They don't just buy and sell junior oil companies to gain stakes in early stage projects with no proven resources.

These bigger companies would rather wait for an oil discovery and spend a lot more money by taking over a company with proven oil resources/reserves, rather than speculate on the outcome of a well.

The ony way they do this (speculate) is by farming into acreage at an early stage. And they actually do this quite cheaply (excluding the ongoing costs of seismic/drilling etc.) That's their business model.

I have never seen a junior farmin partner get taken over by a major operator prior to drilling an exploration well.

The closest you would get is for them to negotiate an additional stake in the project. And that only ever happends when the junior is struggling to meet commitments or they're desperate for cash.

And the only other scenario that might eventuate (other than a takeover after an oil discovery) would be something similar to what happended with Hardman Resources after they hit oil in Mauritania. Prior to the next appraisal round of drilling, the operator (Woodside) took up a 10% stake in Hardman. And this was actually a blocking stake to prevent any potential takeover of Hardman by another major. They didn't want anyone else coming into the j/v and interfering. In hindsight they actually did need a more competent operator coming in to run things, but that's just my opinion.

Cheers,
Butcherano.