Yesterday’s trading: Oil merger in pipeline
Geoff Foster,
3 July 2007, 8:24am
Red hot rumours suggest that top corporate financiers, financial advisers and executives of BP and Royal Dutch Shell are currently involved in round the clock discussions centred on finalising terms for a ‘friendly’ merger which many industry analysts believe would make a great deal of sense.
The oil industry invented mergers and acquisitions and a marriage between BP and Shell could possibly signal that the peak of the global takeover boom has been reached.
Believers in a BP/Shell tie-up reckon government regulators would give conditional approval to any deal. The ‘super group’, which would be producing more than 70% more oil and gas than industry leader ExxonMobil, would have to agree on gigantic disposals. The cost savings would be huge, in excess of £2.5bn, and the group’s operating efficiency would obviously be substantially improved.
BP, under the leadership of former boss Lord Browne, is said to have approached Shell about a deal last year.
Both companies have had a bad time it in recent years, although BP has suffered of late. It has been hit by regulatory investigations into safety, environmental and trading problems in the US which dogged Browne right up until his controversial resignation. His replacement Tony Hayward may have only been in the job for five minutes, but what better way to get the City firmly on his side than to help mastermind a ‘mega merger’ between two of the world’s oil greats.
Ahead of a deal, which could still be weeks away, Royal Dutch Shell ‘A’ gushed 33p to 2067p and the ‘B’ 31p to 2114p, while BP edged up 1p to 604p. A firm oil price, which traded above $72 a barrel at one time, aided sentiment while Shell was additionally buoyed by bullish broker comments. Morgan Stanley said Shell is undervalued by £60bn and Credit Suisse believes there could be £12.5bn of disposals in the pipeline. Its target price is £22.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
Shell and bp joining forces!!!hope not.They done it for 40 years,Shell Mez and BP in the downsream sector.They were the slowest moving heavyweifgt in the division.Distribution was a fiasco,rarely showing profit.It was almost a benevolent organisation into which you pour monry you want to hide.Depots in nearrly every town and village.Hubdreds of road truckks still runnung at horse delivery miles per hour.Then transport was outsourced to people who know what they are doing and they madi it work and made big money.Non profit terminals,most of whose outputs were to competers,were closed and load exchande agreements were drawn up.Bigger is not always better.Weve dropped the British from the title,dropped uk refineries and gone forth to earn a sad reputation on its global projects.
Maybe we should be gratefukk for the disascoiation with bp and British,
There is a very strong logic indeed to a merger between BP and Shell, providing this merger is accompanied by a split between the (merged) upstream and the (merged) downstream businesses. A Shell/BP upstream company would be a phenomenal corporation – not just clear sector leader but also big enough pretty much to be fireproof to the risk of a hostile takeover by Russian or Middle East interests.
The new downstream corporation (entirely separate from the upstream) would focus on the customer (Hooray!) and the brand(s) (Double Hooray!!) and would become a proper marketing focused business rather than being the fag end of the upstream. Upstream folk haven’t a clue how to run marketing businesses as both Shell and (to a lesser extent) BP have shown for years!
An upstream/downstream split post merger would also help any monopoly/anti-trust worries. Some downstream consolidations or disposals would be necessary in some markets.
As a once employee of Shell-Mex and BP I would love to see Shell and BP merge – so long as there is then a rapid upstream/downstream demerger. Could it really happen? We shall see!