May 18th, 2007:

EXTRACT: BP added 11.5p to 582p on continuing talk of a possible merger with rival Royal Dutch Shell, whose A shares rose 45p to £18.76. Such a merger was an unfulfilled dream of ex-BP boss Lord Browne. However after the market closed Shell announced it had bought back 450,000 A shares for cancellation yesterday, something it would not be allowed to do if any serious talks were under way.

THE ARTICLE

Nick Fletcher
Saturday May 19, 2007

One day there will be a trading session without a major company being tipped as a takeover target. Yesterday was not it. read more

EXTRACT: It must be noted that 90 per cent of British share buybacks by value have been carried out by just 20 companies, led by Vodafone, BP and Shell, which between them spent £21 billion last year alone.

THE ARTICLE

May 19, 2007
Nick Hasell: Tempus

Last year may have set a record for share buybacks, but on the evidence of the past week British companies have lost none of their appetite for repurchasing their own stock.

Over the past five days alone, four FTSE 100 stalwarts, BT Group, Compass Group, Enterprise Inns and National Grid, have announced plans to mop up an additional £5.4 billion worth of their own shares. Given that corporate Britain is estimated to have spent £46 billion on buybacks in 2006, a heady 64 per cent increase on the previous year, declarations of intent to acquire a sum of more than one tenth that tally in a single week indicates that 2007 should be another banner year. Nor is this purely a domestic phenomenon. On Wall Street, the likes of ExxonMobil, GE, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft are mopping up their own shares with brio. S&P 500 companies are estimated to have bought back $110 billion (£55.6 billion) of stock in the first quarter of this year, on top of the $800 billion they have spent in the previous two years. read more

May 19, 2007
Bryce Elder

Oil price strength lent the foundation, while another bout of corporate matchmaking provided the froth as the FTSE 100 index reached its best level since September 2000.

BP and Shell featured in both categories, with shares at their highest this year as supply fears squeezed Brent crude to an eight-month peak overnight.

Rumours also lingered about a merger in the sector, with Shell mooted as a potential partner for Gazprom and Total as well as its UK peer. The oil consolidation story has been this week’s favoured takeover theory among traders, replacing last week’s talk of a union between the miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. read more

May 19, 2007
Graham Searjeant, Personal Investor

Whenever companies fail to stand up to an abuse, they give a green light for more and bigger malpractice. That is true of bribery and corruption, of cutting corners on safety or quality, of settling frivolous product liability claims and now of uninsurable class actions from shareholders.

A month ago Royal Dutch Shell agreed a $450 million (£230 million) settlement with lawyers “representing” mainly European investors who claim to have been misled when they bought Royal Dutch shares. The board, you may recall, had overstated its proven commercial oil and gas reserves in the years up to 2004, relative to the formula laid down by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Heads rolled. read more

05.18.07, 1:36 PM ET
(Updates with full report)

AMSTERDAM (Thomson Financial) – Shares closed higher in Amsterdam as heavyweight Royal Dutch Shell surged on continued M&A talk, while steel giant Arcelor Mittal led gainers following target price upgrades at various brokerages, dealers said.

The AEX closed up 5.16 points or 0.97 pct at 536.69 after opening at 531.41 and trading in a range of 531.41-538.29.

Government bonds traded mainly higher while the euro stood at 1.3511 usd, against 1.3491 usd late yesterday. read more

The UK’s History of Advertising Trust, which holds the largest collection of its kind in the world, has launched a new website at www.hatads.org.uk.  One example: Shell has produced some famous advertising over the years, including this image from the trust’s Victorian and Edwardian collection.

By Tony Capaccio

May 18 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. military’s new Africa command will help safeguard West African nations’ oil and other energy production against rebel or terrorist attacks, the general organizing the command said today.

The U.S. wants to help countries such as Nigeria, its fifth- largest supplier of oil, improve its military’s ability to thwart the kind of attacks by militants who in the past year halted production by about 600,000 barrels a day.

“You look at West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, it becomes more focused because of the energy situation,” U.S. Army General Bantz Craddock, head of the European Command, told reporters in Washington. Safeguarding energy “obviously is out in front.” read more

(An oil refinery as seen on the outskirts of the city of Basra.
PolarisEssam Al – Sudani / AFP / Getty)

Thursday, May. 17, 2007
By ROBERT BAER

It took quite a while, but it appears that the Bush Administration has finally gotten around to acknowledging that Iraq has an oil problem. The Government Accountability Office is about to release a report that estimates 100,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil goes missing every month. According to the New York Times, the GAO will not offer a conclusion about what specifically is happening to the missing oil, other than it is probably lost to corruption, smuggling or just bad accounting. read more

Last Updated: 18/05/2007  15:51
Kath Kyle

Campaigners protesting against Shell’s Corrib gas pipeline in Co Mayo attempted to blockade Shell’s HQ on Leeson Street in Dublin this morning.

In a repeat of a protest last month, around 50 protesters prevented Shell staff entering the building early this morning.

Finbar Dwyer of Dublin Shell to Sea said: “We think today was a successful protest to highlight the €51 billion giveaway of Ireland’s resources.

“If the state took a reasonable share of the estimated €51 billion revenue from the Corrib gas field, think what that money could do for health and other public services. A proper salary could be paid to all public servants, not just nurses.” read more

By Will McSheehy and Claudia Maedler

May 18 (Bloomberg) — Dubai International Capital LLC, which has spent $6 billion since 2004 buying companies including stakes in DaimlerChrysler AG, said oil companies are “undervalued” as investors underestimate the positive impact of sustained high energy prices on earnings.

“In the oil and gas sector there are some pretty good opportunities,” Dubai International’s Chief Executive Officer Sameer al-Ansari said in an interview in Jordan’s Dead Sea resort today. “These companies are being valued as if oil prices are going to come down to $30 tomorrow, and we don’t believe that is the case,” he said. read more

Friday 18 May 2007

OIL industry consolidation talk flowed straight to the top yesterday as BP was linked with Shell for a £200 billion-plus alliance.

Shell gained 66p to 1859p and BP rose 13%p to 570%p as late afternoon rumours of a merger between two of Britain’s biggest companies did the rounds.

Their shares were already on the rise owing to higher oil prices after concerns that US gasoline stocks might fail to meet the peak demand period.

There were also suggestions that a predator was mulling a bid for oil and gas explorer Cairn Energy, 62p higher at 1735p.
read more

Fri May 18, 2007 1:47 PM BST

(Deletes reference to ABN AMRO in third paragraph as house broker to Shell after ABN AMRO corrected comments made by a spokeswoman on Thursday)

LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) – Shares in oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) rose more than 4 percent before closing at their highest level in six months on Thursday as traders cited rumours of a possible tie-up with a rival.

“There’s a mutter of a BP/Royal Dutch tie-up,” said one trader. read more

EXTRACT: The price of shares in Royal Dutch Shell climbed 2.18 percent to 1,871 pence and energy peer BP rose 2.45 percent to 584.5 pence amid vague talk of a tie-up between the pair. 

Europe’s main stockmarkets rose on Friday on speculation about possible private equity takeovers and further consolidation across a number of sectors.

At the halfway stage, London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares climbed 0.62 percent to 6,619.90 points.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 rose 0.79 percent to 7,558.49 points and in Paris the CAC 40 won 0.81 percent to 6,075.57. read more

By Fred Pals

May 18 (Bloomberg) — A merger between Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc, Europe’s two biggest oil companies by market value, is unlikely because of a lack of “strategic benefits,” according to Sanford C. Bernstein.

A Shell/BP combination would be politically `unacceptable” with high commodity prices and would also run into competition issues, London-based analyst Neil McMahon wrote in a note today. “Given these issues we believe that this is not the right time for mergers in the industry to become commonplace,” he added.

A merger between the two would create a company worth $459 billion at current share prices, about $2 billion smaller than Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest oil company. read more

Oil companies tell government $16.2-billion Mackenzie Pipeline is dead; Deal could salvage stalled plan to invest in north

Claudia Cattaneo and jon Harding, National Post
Published: Friday, May 18, 2007

CALGARY – The federal government is exploring taking control of the $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project and buying out the Imperial Oil Ltd.-led consortium that has backed it so far as a way to salvage the major northern infrastructure development.

Sources close to negotiations underway in Ottawa said the oil companies have advised the government the project is effectively dead, and are considering the merits of the government owning the pipeline with TransCanada Corp. and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group (APG), an aboriginal enterprise. TransCanada, Canada’s largest pipeline company, which has financed the APG so far, may be the builder. read more

Reuters headline: UPDATE 1-Oil stocks rise – M&A or sector back in favour?

Fri May 18, 2007 10:48 AM BST
(Updates shares, adds analysts, background in grafs 8-15)
By Tom Bergin

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) – European oil stocks continued to rise on Friday, reinforcing market talk about potential mergers, but analysts were sceptical, suggesting the rise may be due to a growing feeling that oil prices will remain high for longer.

The DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index < .SXEP> traded up 1.2 percent at 0908 GMT, despite a fall in oil prices. read more

CYPRUS COULD issue licences for oil and gas exploration in the east Mediterranean by the end of this year, Foreign Minister George Lillikas said yesterday.

“I believe that before the end of the year the first licences for exploration will be issued,” Cypriot foreign minister George Lillikas said during an official visit to Warsaw.

Cypriots say provisional data suggests there are oil and gas deposits in a sea area separating the island from Egypt to its south and Lebanon to its east. The government plans to open 11 areas, or “blocks” rimming the island’s south for exploration. read more

Friday 18th May 2007: 09:58
By Nyree Stewart

The FTSE 100 is up 53.3 points, or 0.81%, to 6,632.6 in early trading, as oil prices push the index higher following rumours of a potential tie-up between Shell and BP.

Cadbury Schweppes is posting the biggest gains with a rise of 3.49% to 697p, on reports private equity firms are mustering a potential £8bn offer for the company, while BG Group has added 2.47% to 789p.

Among oil stocks Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ stocks are up 2.31%to £19.02, closely followed by BP which has climbed 2.28% to 583.5p, while insurer Royal & Sun Alliance has added 2.43% to 172.9p. read more

Reuters: European shares at 6-1/2 yr highs on oils, Cadbury

Fri May 18, 2007 5:05 AM ET
By Anshuman Daga

LONDON (Reuters) – European stocks jumped to their highest levels in about 6-1/2 years on Friday and extended early gains, with index heavyweights BP and Royal Dutch Shell among the biggest gainers on continued market talk of a possible tie-up.

Cadbury rose nearly 4 percent on the back of reports that several parties were interested in its U.S. drinks business.

By 0830 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index < .FTEU3> was 0.7 percent stronger at 1,596.0. The index rose to an intra-day high of 1,597.7, its highest since December 2000. It is up 8 percent so far this year on a cocktail of takeovers and robust results. read more

Shell is the third largest oil company in the world. It is also the new sponsor of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

Despite attempts to ‘greenwash’ its reputation via blanket advertising and cultural sponsorship, Shell is still heavily implicated in producing ever-greater quantities of the oil and gas that are destabilising our climate to such an alarming degree.

Climate change is set to wipe out millions of plant and animal species and to devastate the poorest regions of the planet. Shell’s activities also result in oil spills which are major causes of death and destruction for many varieties of life. Its planned refinery and pipeline project in County Mayo, Ireland, threatens a pristine ecosysystem, not to mention the homes and livelihoods of the inhabitants. read more

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May 17, 2007

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL RE-ENTRY INTO OGONILAND