July 18 (Reuters) - U.S. oil and gas major Chevron Corp completed its $53 billion acquisition of Hess Corp on Friday, winning a landmark legal battle against larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp for access to the largest oil discovery in decades.

Chevron's acquisition of Hess will give the company a 30 percent stake in Guyana's oil-rich Stabroek block, making it one of the largest deals in the oil and gas industry.

Mergers and acquisitions in the shale oil sector have drawn increased scrutiny from antitrust authorities, with the US Federal Trade Commission reviewing several multibillion-dollar deals involving Chevron, ExxonMobil, Diamondback Energy, Occidental Petroleum, and Expand Energy.

The following are the major deals in the global oil and gas sector since the beginning of the 21st century:

* 2001

Chevron bought Texaco in a $39.5 billion deal and emerged as one of the world's largest energy companies.

* 2002

Shareholders of ConocoPhillips Petroleum and the Federal Trade Commission have approved an $18 billion merger between the two companies, creating the third-largest U.S. oil company, ConocoPhillips.

* 2005

Chevron has agreed to buy California rival Unocal for approximately $16.4 billion after competing with Italian oil group Eni, China's CNOOC, and other companies.

* 2006

ConocoPhillips acquired Burlington Resources in a $35.6 billion deal, gaining lucrative investment opportunities in gas-rich basins in North America.

* 2007

Norway's Statoil bought Norsk Hydro's oil and gas assets for $30 billion and created a new energy company, Equinor.

* 2010

Exxon Mobil acquired XTO Energy for approximately $30 billion in equity, strengthening its position as a leading natural gas producer in the United States.

* 2012

Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft has bought TNK-BP from BP in a $55 billion deal.

Kinder Morgan has entered into a $21 billion agreement to acquire El Paso, combining the two largest natural gas pipeline operators.

* 2014

Kinder Morgan has acquired all of its publicly traded units, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, Kinder Morgan, Kinder Morgan Management, and El Paso Pipeline Partners, in a $70 billion deal.

* 2015

Shell, then known as Royal Dutch Shell, acquired its British rival BG Group in a $70 billion deal.

* 2018

Marathon Petroleum acquired rival Andeavor for $23 billion.

* 2019

Occidental Petroleum acquired Anadarko Petroleum in a $38 billion deal.

* 2020

ConocoPhillips acquired Concho Resources for $9.7 billion, the largest shale oil deal of 2020.

Saudi Aramco has completed the purchase of a 70 percent stake in petrochemicals company Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) for $69.1 billion.

PipeChina acquired oil and gas pipelines and storage facilities from PetroChina and Sinopec in a deal valued at $55.9 billion.

* 2021

Norwegian company Aker has acquired Sweden's Lundin Energy in a $13.9 billion cash-plus-shares deal, making it Norway's second-largest listed oil company.

BHP Group has agreed to sell its oil business to Woodside Petroleum in a $28 billion merger, creating an oil and gas producer with assets in Australia and the Americas, now known as Woodside Energy.

* 2023

Magellan Midstream Partners was sold to its larger competitor, Onoc, for $18.8 billion, creating one of the largest energy pipeline companies in the United States.

Exxon Mobil has agreed to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources in an all-stock deal worth $59.5 billion, making it the largest producer in the largest U.S. oil field and guaranteeing low-cost production for 10 years.

Chevron has agreed to buy smaller rival Hess Corp. in a $53 billion all-stock deal, putting it in direct competition with rival Exxon Mobil in two of the world's fastest-growing oil basins.

Occidental Petroleum has agreed to acquire unlisted Crown Rock in a $12 billion cash-and-stock deal, its largest since its acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019.

* 2024

Diamondback Energy has signed an agreement to acquire its unlisted competitor Endeavour Energy Partners in a $26 billion cash and stock deal to strengthen its position in the Permian Basin.

(Prepared by Abdel Hamid Makkawi for the Arabic edition - Edited by Mohamed Ali Farag)