Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:16am EST
LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas industry fell 46 percent to $179 billion in 2008, and much of the focus was on securing unconventional reserves, a report said on Tuesday.
The report from professional services firm Ernst & Young [ERNY.UL] said while transaction levels were strong in the first half of 2008, the financial crisis and collapse in oil prices hit dealmaking in the second half.
The report said the largest deals were launched by western oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) and ConocoPhillips (COP.N) to secure non-traditional reserves such as coal seam gas and tight gas.
The turn to these high-cost sources is a result of national oil companies keeping the richest oil fields for themselves.
Ernst & Young said difficulties for smaller oil companies in securing finance and low oil prices could accelerate a long-expected consolidation among such players.
But it added: “We are not likely to see a repeat of the mega-mergers that reshaped the competitive landscape in the late 1990s.”
(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Hans Peters) ([email protected]; +44 207 542 1029; Reuters Messaging: [email protected]))
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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.
