Energy Stock Sales Reach a Record

Stock sales by two North American oil-and-gas producers vaulted the sums raised by such deals this year to record levels, while further cementing the southwestern Permian Basin as the U.S. oil patch’s hottest region.

Denver-based driller QEP Resources Inc. and Canada’s Birchcliff Energy Ltd. announced offerings late Tuesday that brought to more than $20 billion the total in North American oil-and-gas company share sales this year. That figure tops the record of roughly $19 billion raised in follow-on stock offerings—in...