Is Devon's decision to downsize, withdrawing back to the dry land of the onshore US and Canada, actually a move by the big Oklahoma City-based independent producer to make itself an attractive takeover target for shale-hungry majors? This would be a complete reversal of the "acquire and exploit" strategy the company has followed for over a decade. It was a buyer, not a seller for so long that Devon Chairman and Chief Executive J. Larry Nichols responded out of habit to a question about whether the company now is for sale as if he had been asked about Devon's next acquisition. "I guess I was like Pavlov's dog," Nichols joked.
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机译：德文郡（Devon）缩减规模，撤回美国和加拿大陆上干旱地区的决定，是否实际上是总部位于俄克拉荷马城的大型独立生产商采取的行动，以使其自身成为页岩气专业公司的有吸引力的收购目标？这将完全颠覆公司十多年来一直遵循的“收购和利用”战略。德文郡董事长兼首席执行官拉里·尼科尔斯（J. Larry Nichols）长期以来一直是买家，而不是卖家，对这个公司现在是否要出售的问题不习惯，就像有人被问及德文郡的下一次收购一样。 “我想我就像帕夫洛夫的狗，”尼科尔斯开玩笑说。
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