China’s government has approved Shell’s £47billion takeover of BG Group, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman has confirmed. This means that Shell has passed the last anti-monopoly review prior to the completion of the acquisition. Shell is expected to account for some 30% of China’s total natural gas imports by 2017, according to available statistics.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc is on the brink of completing its biggest acquisition as shareholders look set to back its purchase of BG Group Plc. Risks to the deal completing have almost disappeared. The discount of BG’s shares to the offer price narrowed to a record low of 2.2 percent on Monday after some of Shell’s top shareholders and advisory firms backed the transaction this month. It was at 12.5 percent on Dec. 21.
French group Total has to make the steepest cuts to investments and shareholder returns among Europe's oil majors if crude prices remain weak, in order to maintain its current credit rating, Fitch said today.
Unexploded wartime bombs found near defunct North sea oil and gas infrastructure pose no threat, the operator said yesterday.
Oil major Shell has told investors its purchase of BG Group will work even if the oil price stays at an average of $50 a barrel for the next two years. According to reports, the lowest estimate yet for the oil price has been made in a bid to retain shareholder support for the $51billion deal amid plunging crude markets.
BG Group is challenging its employees to look at how to save costs across its late life facilities while maintaining production.
Oil and gas producers should see an increase in deals this year as cheap crude prices and limited funding options force debt-saddled energy companies to sell assets, according to consultant IHS.
This year marked some significant milestones for oil giant Shell.
BG Group has received approval from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate a natural gas liquefaction and export facility in Louisiana.
BG Group has begun commercial operations from the second train at its Queensland Curtis LNG plant in Australia, assuming full control of the facilities in the process.
BG Group has taken a 35% holding in Block 12 offshore Cyprus which includes the Aphrodite gas discovery.
BG Group has joined the World Bank Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC), to collaborate on carbon pricing systems and policies.
BG Group has approved A$1.7billion natural gas development in Australia.
CIMIC Group has won a contract worth $250million for work on the Surat basin project in Queensland. The agreement is with QGC which is a subsidiary of BG Group.
BG Group has posted its third quarter results and said it remains on track for its takeover by oil major Shell to be completed early next year. The company reported a third-quarter decline in profit of 63% as it feels the force of the oil price decline. Net income fell to $280million form $759million a year previously. Meanwhile BG said its exploration and production was up 26% while full year guidance has increased to between 680-700kboed.
BG Group has restarted production from its Everest platform in the central North Sea after completing the first phase of a £300million major upgrade that will extend its life a further 10 years.
BG Group has acquired three non-operated positions offshore Newfoundland from Spanish-owned Repsol. The company said the move gives it additional access to early stage exploration in a proven prospective basin ahead of the first well being drilled this year.
Should Shell push ahead with its $70 billion bid for BG in the face of cheaper oil? The tumbling oil price – down by a fifth since the merger was announced in April - has raised fears that Shell shareholders might balk at the 50 percent premium the Anglo-Dutch energy group agreed to pay for its smaller rival. But while the price tag may look bigger today on some metrics, so should the cost savings.
Former BG Group boss Sir Frank Chapman is to stand down as chairman of natural gas producer Golar to focus on other interests.
Petro Matad, the parent of a group of companies focused on oil exploration as well as future development and production in Mongolia, has announced condition-free status for a two-block farm-out deal.
U.S. regulators have given the green light for Royal Dutch Shell's proposed $70 billion acquisition of British rival BG Group, the first clearance for the biggest deal in the energy sector in over a decade. The two companies said on Tuesday the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had cleared the deal. The deal, which the companies aim to complete by early 2016, will require further regulatory clearances from all the countries BG operates in, including the European Union, China, Australia and Brazil.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc says its proposed $70 billion takeover of BG Group Plc will boost dividends and share buybacks for investors. North Sea workers in fear of their jobs after a collapse in oil prices will hope they’re as lucky. Shell, employing about 2,400 across the North Sea, targets $2.5 billion of pretax “synergies” a year across the globe from the deal, including staff cuts. “There are no guarantees in life,” said Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden, asked if the deal would lead to cuts in the U.K. “Irrespective of what happens, we will have to look at how we make the North Sea a strong and healthy province again.” Even before the latest plans, The Hague-based company said March 26 that about 250 positions would go in Aberdeen, the Scottish city at the center of the U.K. oil and gas industry. “We expect synergies globally, which would include job reductions and office consolidation,” Kayla Macke, a Shell spokeswoman, said Wednesday in an e-mailed reply to questions. Details will be provided later, she said.
Ah, I’ve been waiting for this to happen ... the mega-mergers derby to begin, the starting gun being the current oil price slump. And it turns out to be Shell that got out of the gate first, which might surprise a few stock market pundits who know far more than ever I will about deal making or indeed horse making form than I ever will. However, unless you count the company’s $4.5-5billion takeover of Enterprise Oil in 2002, then Shell was conspicuously absent from the Mega-mergers Cup Race sparked by the late 1997 through 1999 oil price slump that sparked consolidation among a crop of listed Western oilcos and big supply chain brands. Naturally, there’s been a heap of punditry spewed so far as a result of Shell deciding that it wants to pick off BG Group. However, even I can see a number of good reasons for this particular deal, particularly on the assets portfolio front. And so-on and so-forth.
BG boss Helge Lund is set to enjoy a bumper pay package that could be worth more than £20 million, despite agreeing to a takeover just two months into the job. Mr Lund is likely to stay on until the completion of the deal, expected to take about a year, which will see the exploration firm swallowed up by Royal Dutch Shell. The scale of his planned remuneration caused an outcry last year before it was trimmed slightly and pegged to stringent performance criteria by the company as it sidestepped a potential shareholder revolt.
A proposed cash and shares deal between the two companies will leave BG shareholders owning about 19% of the combined company. For oil major Shell, the addition of BG will increase the company's proved oil and gas reserves by 25%. It will also boost production by 20% and provide Shell with a much stronger position in new oil and gas projects, particulary in Australia and in Brazil. The deal will also generate synergies of around $2.5billion a year.