Marathon Oil announced just two weeks ago that it plans to sell almost 100,000 non-core acres in the Eagle Ford Shale, but this past week the company announced it has spent $227 million on 4,300 net acres in its core area. Associated production wasn't released, but this will easily go down as the highest multiple the company has paid for any sizable tract of acreage. $227 million for just over 4,000 acres works out to be more than $50,000 per acre.

Don't let the assets sale fool you. The latest acquisition is the perfect example how committed Marathon is to the area.

Marathon has spent approximately $4.5 billion on Eagle Ford assets in the past 18 months.

• $3.5 billion for Hilcorp's Eagle Ford Acreage
• $750 million acquisition of Paloma Partners
• $227 million for the latest deal announced in late October 2012

The planned asset sale in the Eagle Ford is part of a larger plan to sell $1.5-3 billion in assets between 2011 and 2013. The company has completed $1 billion in deals so far and will add to that total selling a portion of its oil sands and Eagle Ford assets. Marathon will have approximately 225,000 net acres once current deals on the table are completed.