Petroleum giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC agreed to buy the British company BG Group PLC for about $70 billion. A deal will create the world's largest independent producer of liquefied natural gas amid a historic downturn in energy prices. The merger will unite two companies that have been suffered from the plunge in oil and gas prices since last summer and will enable two European energy giants to reduce or eliminate overlapping costs as well as to offset the negative impact of low prices. BG Group PLC has been the first acquisition of such scale in the industry for the past years. It is noted that the management boards had not obtained the consent yet. However, if approved by shareholders and regulators, Shell will become the world's largest producer of liquefied natural gas. The purchase of BG’s assets will also put it at the forefront of the competition among big international oil companies to land the pole position in the race to dominate the global liquefied gas market. In addition to assets, Shell will have an access to significant oil and gas reserves. Thus, the company will be able to save money which should be spent on geological exploration of new fields. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is an Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company, which has operations of extracting and processing of hydrocarbons in more than 40 countries around the world. Its capitalization is equal to $192 billion. The company seeks to recover oil and gas reserves considering the fact that they were down last year. BG Group PLC is the third largest gas producer in the UK. The main activities are exploration, extraction, production and transportation of gas.
