Chevron Corp. bought a 50% interest in LL Investicijos, a Lithuanian oil and gas company that is expected to start exploration activities in coming months.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC agreed to buy from Hess Corp. its holdings in Beryl field and related properties northeast of Aberdeen in the UK North Sea as well as its stake in the Scottish Area Gas Evacuation System (SAGE) for a total of $525 million.

Marathon Oil Corp. is discussing a potential sale of part of its 20% outside-operated interest in the Athabasca oil sands project in Alberta, and it also is expanding its holdings in the South Texas Eagle Ford shale play through one completed acquisition and one pending acquisition.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has closed three sales of interests in the Permian basin (OGJ Online, Sept. 12, 2012).

Halcon Resources Corp. agreed to acquire producing and undeveloped assets in the Williston basin’s Bakken and Three Forks formations in North Dakota from privately held Petro-Hunt LLC for $1.45 billion cash-stock transaction.

Canada has blocked a $5.5 billion (Can.) bid by Petronas Carigali Canada Ltd. for Canadian natural gas producer Progress Energy Resources Corp. in a move that is prompting questions among analysts about whether the government also might reject CNOOC Ltd.’s pending offer to buy Nexen Inc.

BP PLC is selling its half-interest in TNK-BP to Rosneft in a transaction that will expand its stake in the buyer, an ill-fated deal with which has soured the UK company’s relations with its TNK-BP partner since early last year.

Shell China Exploration & Production Co. is making progress toward finalizing its purchase of a stake in China’s Zitong block in Sichuan basin from Sunwing Zitong Energy, a subsidiary of Ivanhoe Energy Inc. of Calgary.

ExxonMobil Canada has agreed to acquire Celtic Exploration Ltd., Calgary, in a $3.1 billion (Can.) transaction involving large acreage positions in Canadian shale plays.

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. and Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas), both state-owned, have signed a memorandum of understanding for joint exploration and production worldwide and development of gas infrastructure and LNG sourcing.

Murphy Oil Corp. announced plans to spin off its US downstream subsidiary, Murphy Oil USA Inc. into an independent and separately traded company, and Murphy reaffirmed plans to divest UK downstream operations, saying it is reviewing options for certain UK assets.

After restructuring its downstream business in a move it said showed commitment to an integrated company structure, Total has completed a reorganization of its upstream and supply-marketing segments.