Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) jumped to a record high on speculation that it may be on the brink of a takeover, according to Bloomberg June 11.

Anadarko climbed 4.2% to $108.32 at the close in New York after theflyonthewall.com reported “takeover chatter” June 11 surrounding The Woodlands, Texas-based company. Anadarko’s settlement of a long-running pollution case in April helped clear the way for suitors for a company that has long been viewed as a likely target for one of the major international oil companies such as ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM)

“It’s just the start of summer and guys are kind of out there flogging the old reliable story that Exxon’s about to buy somebody really cool,” Andrew Coleman, a Houston-based analyst for Raymond James & Associates Inc., said in a phone interview. Anadarko has “an asset base that would be coveted by any large player looking to make that kind of a splash. The question would be, is now the time for that? And that’s a question for guys in pinstripe suits.”

Anadarko has soared 26% since it agreed with the Justice Department in early April to pay $5.15 billion to clean up 85 years’ worth of pollution left behind by its Kerr-McGee unit. Built for a potential sale by former CEO James Hackett, a renowned dealmaker, the $54.7 billion company may have outgrown all but a few possible buyers.

John Christiansen, an Anadarko spokesman, said in a phone interview that the company doesn’t comment on rumors. Exxon also declined to comment.

The stock has rallied for the past six days as of June 11, the longest streak since July 2012. About 11.7 million Anadarko shares changed hands as of 4:15 p.m. in New York, compared with average daily trading of 4.7 million this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Anadarko shares are up 37% this year, compared with a 5.2% advance in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Options trading on the stock jumped as Anadarko advanced. More than 99,000 contracts betting on a rise in the shares traded June 11, nine times the 20-day average, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Calls that will be profitable if Anadarko reaches $120 by January have the highest ownership.

Anadarko would probably be at the top of the list for multinational oil companies seeking purchases to turn around years of declining production, David Neuhauser, managing director of Northbrook, Ill.-based investment firm Livermore Partners, said in December. A buyer would get a presence in fields including the Niobrara Formation in Colorado, Texas’s Eagle Ford Shale and offshore Africa.

In addition to expanding in deepwater offshore assets in Africa and the Gulf of Mexico, Anadarko has seen surging U.S. output with projects such as Colorado’s Wattenberg Field, which includes the Niobrara and Codell Formations. The company is targeting compound annual production growth of 5% to 7% over the next decade.

Multinational oil companies struggling with production declines could solve the problem by making a sizable acquisition, said Neuhauser, which focuses on undervalued energy companies.

Exxon, Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), BP Plc (NYSE: BP), Total SA (NYSE: TOT), ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE: RDS-A, RDS-B) all would have been suggested as potential acquirers of Anadarko to gain access to its portfolio of projects around the world.