The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Strathcona Resources is buying fellow heavy-oil producer Greenfire Resources for about $2.4-billion in cash and stock in a deal aimed at consolidating holdings controlled by Calgary's Waterous Energy Fund. The Globe's Jeffrey Jones writes that the friendly transaction, the latest in a recent gusher of oil-patch takeover activity, will meld two oil companies with similar strategies, and the increased size is expected to improve access to capital. Waterous Energy Fund (WEF) owns 57 per cent of Strathcona and 72 per cent of Greenfire. Part of the rationale is tied to Strathcona's proposal for an oil-by-rail system to Prince Rupert from Alberta, said Adam Waterous, the company's executive chairman and founder of WEF. Under that plan, known as Northern Express, 250,000 barrels of oil a day would be shipped on CN Rail's tracks to the northwestern B.C. port. The merger offers Strathcona the scale necessary for the company to pursue that project, which is still in its early stages. The proposal calls for $2.5-billion to $3.5-billion in spending on rail, terminal and other infrastructure, and would require exemptions to a federal ban in that region on tanker loadings.