Does Gov. Want to go for renewables energy or what?
Oz Shell-BG decision delayedFriday, 4 September 2015
Haydn Black
THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has given itself more time to consider Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell’s planned takeover of UK-based Queensland LNG producer BG Group, delaying an expected announcement of its decision until September 17.
It had been expected to hand down its findings yesterday.
The ACCC has been reviewing the $US70 billion ($A99 billion) takeover since June, and is believed to be concerned about the potential impact on gas supply in Australia.
The combined CSG resources that would be controlled by Shell if the takeover goes ahead would be massive.
BG alone has 13,000 petajoules of 2P reserves ascribed to its $24 billion Queensland Curtin LNG project.
QCLNG’s two trains have already started up, and there are four additional trains at Australia Pacific and Gladstone LNG expected to start up in the coming months, set to suck vast amounts of gas out of the east coast gas market.
Shell has key approval from all the affected governments, including the European Union, the US and Brazil, with the UK, China and Australia still holding out.
The proposed merger has raised worries among already stressed east coast gas users about Shell’s commitment to the domestic gas market, supply availability and pricing.
The ACCC focused on the potential impact of the takeover on the wholesale supply of gas in eastern Australia, with a number of gas buyers concerned about the impact of consolidation of gas resources, despite the fact a company such as Blue Energy has more than 4000PJ of gas in the ground just waiting for development.
Both ventures are large suppliers of CSG into the Queensland market, and the takeover is expected to result in Arrow's uncontracted CSG resources being directed into BG’s export project at Gladstone rather than the planned standalone Arrow LNG project that Shell has been pursuing with PetroChina.
However, it seems unlikely that Shell would seek to increase the scale of QCLNG from 8.5 million tonnes per annum given the gas glut.
Shell says it is working closely with the ACCC to complete the regulatory review and anticipates completion of the merger early next year.
ORG Price at posting:
$7.69 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Not Held
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(20min delay)