By James Paton
April 30 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina Co. received approval from Australias Foreign Investment Review Board to acquire gas producer Arrow Energy Ltd. in a A$3.5 billion ($3.3 billion) transaction.
The decision follows clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and allows the companies to seek regulatory approval in China, Brisbane-based Arrow said in a statement today to the Australian stock exchange.
Shell and PetroChina agreed in March to buy Arrows Australian business for A$4.70 a share in cash. Arrow investors will also receive shares in a new company, Dart Energy Ltd., which will hold the explorers overseas gas assets and Arrows stakes in Australian-listed companies. The acquisition will give Shell and PetroChina control of Australias largest holder of permits to extract gas from coal seams.
Following the euphoria surrounding the initial bid and increased offer, the deal has moved into an approvals and implementation phase, Adrian Wood, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. in Sydney, said in a report today before the announcement.
Arrow traded 0.4 percent higher at A$5.17 at 12:17 p.m. in Sydney, compared with the 0.6 percent advance in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Shareholder approval is the key remaining hurdle, he said. Arrow shareholders are due to vote on the offer in mid- July and are likely to support the transaction, Wood said.
Shell is planning a liquefied natural gas project on Curtis Island off the central Queensland coast. A development decision on the venture is expected by 2012, Shell said in March. More than a dozen LNG projects in Australia are targeting Asian demand for cleaner-burning alternatives to coal.
The approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board is another step towards Shell and PetroChina being able to invest the funds required to further develop Queenslands CSG-to-LNG industry, Shell said in a statement today.
–Editors: John Viljoen, Ang Bee Lin.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at [email protected].
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.
