WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - Nearly 50 Democrats in

the U.S. Congress on Wednesday urged the Federal Trade

Commission to probe oil and gas company deals and expand current

investigations to protect consumers and industry competition.

The industry went on a $250 billion buying spree in 2023,

taking advantage of companies' high stock prices to secure

lower-cost reserves. Exxon Mobil Chevron Corp,

and Occidental Petroleum ( OXY ) made acquisitions worth a total

of $135 billion in 2023.

The trend has continued this year with deals such as

Chesapeake Energy ( CHK ) agreeing in January to buy

Southwestern Energy ( SWN ), a $7.4 billion deal that will make

it the largest independent U.S. natural gas producer.

"If a small group of dominant firms is allowed to control

this industry, American consumers and industry competition will

only suffer," the Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader

Chuck Schumer, and Representative Ro Khanna, wrote in a letter

to the FTC.

"Therefore, we urge the FTC to extend its current

investigations, open inquiries into these new deals, and take

all appropriate actions to protect competition in this

industry."

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, asked about recent

mergers at an event held by Axios, said she was concerned about

monopolies because President Joe Biden is "obsessed about

bringing down prices" including for gasoline.

But Granholm also expressed hope that mergers could

accelerate a trend by some large oil and gas companies to act on

climate and clean energy.

"Many of the majors, many of them not all ... have been

taking action on climate and clean energy and a lot of the folks

who are small level producers were not as interested, or didn't

have the resources to address (those issues) so I'm encouraged

that there seems to be a movement in this direction," Granholm

said.