drilling?, page-5

Sorry chaps, here's the link to the article on the BG-Shell rumour.

The link in the previous post was an old one, disregard that.
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Shell takeover rumour puts oil giants in the spotlight
By Rosamund Urwin, Dt: 22.07.09

Talk that Royal Dutch Shell was eyeing up BG Group put the focus on big oil today.

The rumour — which regularly does the rounds on a quiet day in the City — was sparked this time by speculation that Australian oil giant Santos may receive a bid.

BG and Santos are both major forces in the lucrative gas coal-seam sector in Queensland, where Shell is thought to be interested in extending its operations. The oil titan has already teamed up with Arrow Energy in the region, but a takeover of BG would dramatically increase its hold there.

Santos is believed to be considering a merger with Origin Energy, in a deal which would be worth £8 billion.

Traders said that they had heard the rumour of a BG bid from Shell too many times, but the benefits of a deal are apparent: BG has gas as well as oil interests and there are likely to be fewer obstacles to a takeover than if Shell targeted an Aussie operation.

The takeover talk pushed BG onto the FTSE winners board, rising 22p to 1074p. The rest of the sector was down as the price of crude retreated slightly. BP was off 2¾p to 502½p and Royal Dutch Shell fell 5p to 1560p.

The FTSE's winning streak appeared to have run out of steam today as losses from the miners weighed on shares and investors pocketed profits.