October 16, 2023--Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The eyes of the energy world are zeroed-in on the Permian Basin even more than usual these days, with Exxon Mobil Corporation's (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas) $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) (Irving, Texas) grabbing headlines. The megadeal will make ExxonMobil a dominant player in the oil-rich play, and the reverberations of this transaction could start an avalanche of mergers and acquisitions activity.