General Thoughts, page-3402

Potter and Alex;
Shell did make a play for Woodside twenty years or so ago, but was blocked and thereafter sold their share.
Woodside and Shell are, of course, joint venture partners in several stand-alone projects.
A snippet from AFR at that time;
Woodside Petroleum to stand alone afterShell's $3.5b exitAngela Macdonald-Smith, Sarah Thompson and Anthony MacdonaldNov 14, 2017 – 11.00pmWoodside Petroleum chairman Michael Chaney has declared "the end of an era" asthe oil and gas player emerged as a fully independent company for the first time inmore than 30 years thanks to a $3.5 billion sellout by Royal Dutch Shell.The outright sale of Shell's 13.28 per cent interest – which was upgraded in size onlyhours after an initial agreement after Monday's market close to sell 64 per cent of theholding [http://www.copyright link/street-talk/royal-dutch-shell-sells-out-of-woodside-in-midnighttrade-20171113-gzknjd] – leaves Woodside without a stake that could block a fulltakeover.The move was sudden but not unexpected, given the oil major – which had its own$10 billion bid for control of Woodside blocked under the Howard government in2001 – had been gradually selling down since 2010. Shell had made it clear a fullwithdrawal was on the cards.