BG Group has backed a takeover worth £47billion from oil major Royal Dutch Shell.
But what do we know about the Reading-based company?
Its roots go back to the 1950s, when the UK's Gas Council began putting resources into liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a potential replacement for manufactured gas.
Then, in 1986, British Gas - which contained a major part of the UK's exploration business, was privatised in 1986.
Just over 10 years later British Gas was demerged into two separate companies, with BG taking charge of exploration and production and its international downstream operations, as well as its British transmission and distribution business called Transco.
Shares in BG Group have risen by more than a third after it was revealed the company was in talks with oil major Shell.
The deal, which broke last night, began as BG Group confirmed speculation it was in talks with the company.
It has since been confirmed that its board has backed an offer from Shell for a £47billion takeover.
The companies have unveiled details of the merger in a statement to the London Stock exchange.
Petro Matad has entered into a farm-out agreement with BG Group for a 78% interest in blocks IV A V in Mongolia.
The deal will help to fund the company’s share of mutually agreed $28million work programme.
Under the terms of the agreement, BG Group has committed to covering Petro Matad’s portion of the agreed $28million programme.
BG Group has begun production once again from its Knarr field after it was shut down following a small fire.
The incident happened on March 24 when there was a small electrical fire in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit in a technical room on the floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).
A full investigation was started immediately and short term recommendations and a spokesman said the findings have been acted on and shared.
Production had to be halted temporarily from the Knarr oil field in the Norwegian North Sea after a small fire broke out.
The incident on the floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) happened just over a week after production began.
Exploration firm BG Group shares rose from 3.7p to 938.6p after new boss Helge Lund started his new post a month early.
The rise came a week after the company took a multi-billion pound hit from the plunge in oil prices.
The FTSE 100 Index fell 71.3 points to 6782.1 with all but a handful of commodities stocks turning lower.
The new boss of exploration firm BG Group is starting a month early today, a week after it took a multibillion-pound hit from the plunge in oil prices.
Helge Lund, who is joining after a decade at Norwegian energy giant Statoil, takes charge after the group sidestepped the threat of a shareholder revolt in the wake of an outcry over his pay package.
Mr Lund had been expected to take the helm on March 2 but BG said the date “has been brought forward following agreement last week from his former employer to release him from his contractual commitments”.
BG Group warned of further job cuts and budget slashing yesterday as it also revealed it had wiped £4billion off the value of oil and gas assets globally to reflect the sharp fall in crude prices.
UK North Sea output was up by about 5% in 2014 as BG slumped to pre-tax losses of £1.5billion, from profits of £2.58million a year earlier. Revenue and other income was 2% higher at £12.9billion.
Ernst den Hartigh, managing director of European exploration and production, said: “We safely increased production for a second successive year. Our priorities for 2015 are to complete the offshore investment campaign we started last autumn and ensure we reduce operating costs to a more sustainable level.”
Want to buy an oil well in UK’s North Sea? There are plenty available as some of the industry’s largest names try to sell aging, costly wells that have become even less profitable with the plunge in crude prices.
BG Group Plc, Apache Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. are among companies that have explored a sale of their North Sea assets, according to people familiar with the processes.
In all, assets worth as much as $30 billion are currently for sale in the North Sea, said Dave Blackwood, senior adviser to investment bank Evercore Partners Inc.
BG Group has become the latest firm to cut its contractor rates in the wake of the fall off in oil prices.
A staff meeting was held Friday in Aberdeen where people were informed of the priorities for the year, the need to improve efficiency and the decision to reduce contractor rates by an average of 10%.
BG employs 230 contractors in Aberdeen.
A Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) has been submitted to the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels for three separate oil and gas accumulations in Brazil.
BG Group said it had, along with its partner Petrobas, submitted the application which it believes is another major milestone in the first phase of development of BG Group’s interests in the region.
The Iara area is located approximately 250 kilometres off the coast of Rio De Janeiro in water depths of around 2,270 metres.
As 2014 draws to a dramatic close for the industry, Energy Voice reflects on milestone events that fuelled a hectic year.
In the first of a three part series we look back at some of the game changers within the industry.
Later this week, we'll look at some of the highlights and defining moments in the months leading up to the Scottish referendum.
BG Group has loaded up its first cargo from the QCLNG (Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas) project.
The company said the first vessel being loaded is from the Methane Rita Andrea.
A second cargo will be loaded onto the Methan Mickie Harper which is expected in Gladstone in the first week of January.
BG Group has entered into a $460million agreement with GasLog Ltd to acquire two modern tri-fuel diesel electric LNG carriers.
The company will charter back the two vessels, the Methane Becki Anne and Methane Julia Louise for nine and 11 years respectively.
A spokesman said the transactions would provide BG Group with flexibility in managing its future fleet requirements, and as the ships are currently managed by GasLog, day to day operations will be largely unchanged.
BG Group has agreed to sell its Australian pipeline business for $5billion to the APA Group.
The subsidiary, QCLNG Pipeline, owns a 543 kilometre underground pipeline network which links BG group’s natural gas field in southern Queensland to a two-train export facility.
It was constructed between 2011 and 2014 and has a value of $1.6billion.
BG Group has revised the salary package for its new chief executive Helge Lund following a backlash from shareholders.
Mr Lund, who has been likened to Real Madrid and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo because of his superstar status in the global oil and gas industry, was set to get a £12million “golden hello” in shares and the chance to earn £13.5million a year if he hits performance targets.
Mr Lund’s share award has been cut from £10million to £4.7million.
The North Sea will soon produce an extra 45,000 barrels of oil a day after start-up on the £700million Kinnoull field, BP chief executive Bob Dudley has announced.
