Marathon Oil in North America, including $600 million in the Eagle Ford and $200 million in the Bakken formation. The company owns 277,000 net acres in the Bakken formation. Marathon began as The Ohio Oil Company in 1887. In 1889, it was purchased by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. It remained a part of Standard Oil until Standard Oil was broken in 1911. In 1930, The Ohio Oil Company bought the Transcontinental Oil Company and established the "Marathon" brand name. In 1962, the company changed its name to "Marathon Oil Company". In 1982, Mobil made a hostile offer to buy the company;
National Iranian Oil Company Royal Dutch Shell (14%), and Compagnie Française des Pétroles (later Total S.A., 6%). The four Aramco partners - Standard Oil of California (SoCal, later Chevron) - Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon, then ExxonMobil) - Standard Oil Co. of New York (later Mobil, then ExxonMobil) - Texaco (later Chevron) - each held an 8% stake in the holding company. All IOP members acknowledged that NIOC owned the oil and facilities in Iran, and IOP's role was to operate and manage them on behalf of NIOC. To facilitate that, IOP established two operating entities incorporated in the Netherlands, and both