THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Better: Find a Nation Rich in Oil as Partner; Quarterly Loss Posted
FEBRUARY 4, 2009
By GUY CHAZAN
LONDON — Western oil majors might do better to partner with national oil companies in resource-rich nations than to merge with each other the way they did the last time oil prices collapsed, the head of BP PLC said Tuesday.
Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, was speaking amid rumors that Big Oil might be poised for a round of megadeals comparable to the spectacular mergers of the late 1990s, another time of low oil prices. Then, BP bought Amoco and Arco, Chevron Corp. merged with Texaco, and Exxon acquired Mobil in a $75 billion deal that was at the time the largest takeover in corporate history.
![[BP on Tuesday posted a quarterly net loss of $3.34 billion, compared with a profit of $4.4 billion a year earlier, a reflection of plunging oil prices. CEO Tony Hayward said the challenge is to continue to capture resources to grow.]](https://i0.wp.com/s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-AU250_BP_cor_D_20090203221708.jpg?resize=262%2C174)
Associated Press
BP on Tuesday posted a quarterly net loss of $3.34 billion, compared with a profit of $4.4 billion a year earlier, a reflection of plunging oil prices. CEO Tony Hayward said the challenge is to continue to capture resources to grow.
There has been speculation that Exxon MobilCorp., which built up a huge cash pile last year as oil soared to nearly $150 a barrel, might be considering a bid for a rival like Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell PLC or the smaller BG Group PLC.
But Mr. Hayward said the logic for such megamergers was not “terribly compelling” since it wouldn’t increase the companies’ combined resource base — one of the biggest challenges now facing oil companies. Combining a major, with its technological expertise, and a national oil company, with its greater access to reserves, would make a better fit, he said. NOCs, as the national oil companies are known, control at least three-quarters of the world’s natural resources.
“The challenge for all of us today is to continue to capture resource to enable us to grow,” he said.
Such partnerships would, in theory, make sense for the NOCs, too. The global slowdown and falling oil price have badly dented the finances of oil exporters from Russia to Venezuela, and many of the national energy champions are short of cash.
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Analysts believe some won’t be able to fund costly investment programs without outside help. For example, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, may struggle to pay for the development of a string of huge oilfields recently discovered off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state unless it teams up with a cash-rich major like Exxon.
But a full-scale merger between an NOC and an international oil company is unlikely “due to the role NOCs play in advancing policy objectives of their respective foreign governments,” said Frank Verrastro, director of the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Mr. Hayward’s comments on megamergers reflect a widespread belief in the industry that big isn’t necessarily beautiful. Though much larger than they were in the 1990s, all the majors have had trouble trying to increase production and reserves.
![[bp net profit]](https://i0.wp.com/s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/EM-AF356_BP_NS_20090203173616.gif?resize=212%2C290)
“When I look at the large companies I don’t see the benefit they’ve had from the round of mergers ten years ago,” said Stephen Thornber, global equity fund manager at Threadneedle Investments, which owns 1.1% of BP. “All of them are fundamentally short of prospects and opportunities.”
He said the sector could still see some consolidation soon, as big companies snap up small independents weakened by the credit crunch. Smaller players focused on exploration and production that need cash to keep drilling have seen their access to capital dry up, and the weakest are now seen as potential acquisition targets for bigger rivals, especially ones with strong balance sheets and an ability to borrow large amounts of cash, like BP.
Mr. Hayward spoke as BP announced a net loss for the fourth quarter of $3.34 billion, compared with a profit of $4.4 billion a year earlier, a reflection of much lower oil prices. Replacement cost profit, a closely watched metric that strips out gains and losses on inventory holdings, fell 24% to $2.6 billion.
For the full year, net profit stood at $21.2 billion, and replacement cost profit at $25.6 billion — a 39% increase on 2007. Mr. Hayward said with the economic environment deteriorating in 2009, he didn’t see the “record financial performance being repeated for some time.”
BP said it made a loss of $700 million on its Russian venture, TNK-BP. This was largely due to what Mr. Hayward called the “vagaries of the Russian tax system,” under which Russian companies paid taxes in the fourth quarter based on prices of the previous third quarter, when the oil price was around $100 a barrel. The Russian government has now changed the system so that tax calculations are made on a monthly basis, without the lag.
Write to Guy Chazan at [email protected]
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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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