By James Paton

April 14 (Bloomberg) — The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission cleared Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina Co.’s A$3.5 billion ($3.3 billion) bid to acquire Arrow Energy Ltd. after a monthlong review of the proposed transaction.

“Taking into account the significant competing gas suppliers and abundant gas reserves that would remain post- acquisition, the ACCC considered that the proposed acquisition was unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any relevant market,” the Australian regulator said on its Web site.

Shell and PetroChina are still seeking approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board after agreeing last month to buy Arrow’s Australian business for A$4.70 a share in cash. Arrow investors also will receive shares in a new company, Dart Energy Ltd., which will hold the explorer’s gas assets overseas and Arrow’s stakes in Australian-listed companies.

Phil Connole, a Shell spokesman in Melbourne, wouldn’t say how long the review board process could take and declined to comment on the ACCC’s decision.

Shell and PetroChina initially made a A$4.45 a-share offer, Brisbane-based Arrow said on March 8. The Australian energy company announced an agreement on March 22 after the two companies raised their bid.

Shell and PetroChina join BG Group Plc and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. in acquiring coal-seam gas assets in Queensland to supply planned liquefied natural gas ventures.

–Editors: Alex Devine, Jane Lee.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney at jpaton4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net.

SOURCE ARTICLE

By Ben Sharples

April 6 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said the company’s joint A$3.5 billion ($3.2 billion) bid with PetroChina Co. to acquire Arrow Energy Ltd. is yet to be approved by the Australian government, denying a press report.

“We continue to work through the government approval process,” Phil Connole, Melbourne-based spokesman for Shell, said by telephone today. The Australian Financial Review reported earlier that backing from the nation’s Foreign Investment Review Board for the transaction had been secured.

Australian lawmakers have increased scrutiny of resources takeovers by China, citing concerns the country may lose control of strategic assets. Chinese companies spent a record $32 billion last year buying oil fields and coal and metal mines to supply the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Shell and PetroChina agreed to acquire Brisbane-based Arrow as part of a joint venture after raising their offer to A$4.70 a share in cash, from A$4.45, Shell’s Australian unit said March 22. Arrow investors will also receive shares in a new company called Dart Energy Ltd. holding the explorer’s gas assets overseas and Arrow’s stakes in Australian-listed companies.

Australia will remain open to foreign investment in its resources industry when it is in the nation’s interests, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said in January after Yanzhou Coal Mining Co.’s A$3.5 billion acquisition of Felix Resources Ltd.

Shell and PetroChina filed their application last week. The investment review board is unlikely to have significant concerns about the Arrow deal, Benjamin Wilson, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Sydney, said in a March 22 report.

–Editors: John Viljoen, Amit Prakash.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jane Lee in Kuala Lumpur at jalee@bloomberg.net

SOURCE ARTICLE

BBC NEWS

Royal Dutch Shell has strengthened its ties in China with a 30-year deal to explore for natural gas in the country.

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant will partner China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in the project.

The deal follow’s this week’s joint bid with PetroChina, owned by CNPC, for Australia’s Arrow Energy gas company.

Shell has been expanding its search for gas assets rapidly, and the deal secures the company a strong presence in resource-hungry China.

Under the agreement, which still needs clearance from the Beijing government, Shell and CNPC will initially search for gas in a 4,000 sq km area in the Sichuan province.

“The agreement will strengthen our partnership with CNPC in developing cleaner energy to meet China’s growing needs,” said Malcolm Brinded, Shell’s executive director of upstream operations.

On Monday Shell and PetroChina struck an agreed $3.1bn (£2.1bn) takeover of Arrow Energy, a coal-seam gas company in Australia.

Shell and PetroChina already operate Changbei, a gas field in the Ordos Basin in Shaanxi province, which began commercial production in March 2007 and now supplies 3bn cubic metres per year.

And in January the two companies began assessing a shale gas field in Sichuan.

It is thought that Shell is also considering investing in new oil refineries in China.

“We’re open to other discussions here if that will materialise,” said Shell chief executive Peter Voser at a news conference in Beijing.

China is the world’s second-largest oil and gas consumer after America, and has agreed a string of deals around the world to import resources.

BBC ARTICLE

REUTERS

(Reuters) – Australia Arrow Energy Ltd (AOE.AX) has opened its books to Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and PetroChina (0857.HK) for them to conduct due diligence for their joint takeover offer worth at least A$3.3 billion ($3.03 billion) sources said on Wednesday.

One of the sources said Arrow is expected to make a response on the offer within days. ($1=1.088 Australian Dollar)

(Reporting by Fayen Wong; Editing by Michael Perry)

REUTERS SOURCE ARTICLE

A stream of analyst comments and silence on the offer from the Australian coal-seam gas group has fuelled expectations that Arrow will reject the bid and the two parties will have to come in with a higher – and hostile – offer. Last week, Shell and PetroChina offered A$4.45 in cash for each Arrow share, plus a share in a new, international Arrow entity.

March 16, 2010

David Wighton: Business Editor’s commentary

He arrived with a bang and within weeks had axed 5,000 jobs. But eight months after taking over the helm at Royal Dutch Shell, is Peter Voser making progress turning around the supertanker?

Long derided as the most sluggish of the top oil companies, Shell will today try to persuade investors at its annual strategy briefing that it is back on course. There certainly are some encouraging signs. For six years, oil production has been drifting lower at an average of 3.5 per cent a year. But with a series of big projects due to give the figures a boost this year, production is expected to stabilise at about 3.2 million barrels a day in 2010. In 2011 it could start growing for the first time in almost a decade.

Mr Voser can claim only limited credit for this trend, which reflects years of investment. But his own changes are starting to have an impact, in particular a sweeping reordering of the company that has reduced costs and improved focus.

For years, Shell was plagued by delays and budget overruns on big projects. So far, his creation of a separate division, Projects and Technology, responsible for masterminding large-scale operations, seems to be working well. Compared with peers such as Exxon and BP, Shell has been slow to make such changes, but that means the potential for improvements is greater.

Mr Voser has promised at least another $1 billion in cost cuts this year and will provide further details today.

He is still grappling with huge challenges — not least Shell’s sprawling refining and marketing operation, which is struggling in the face of the industry’s most severe downturn in 20 years. The group’s poor record at finding new supplies of oil and gas also remains a profound problem which Voser must address.

Still, his decision to sell some of Shell’s onshore Nigerian assets and bid for Arrow Energy, an Australian producer of coal-seam gas, show that he is willing to give the portfolio a good shaking. It will be years before Mr Voser’s performance can be judged properly — but so far so good.

david.wighton@thetimes.co.uk

TIMES ARTICLE

March 9 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina may need to increase their bid for Arrow Energy Ltd. by as much as 18 percent to A$3.9 billion ($3.5 billion) based on similar transactions in Australia, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said.

March 8 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc has offered about A$3.3 billion ($3 billion) for Arrow Energy Ltd. to take control of the company’s gas assets in Australia’s Queensland state, the Australian Financial Review reported, without saying where it got the information.

Shell is offering about A$4.50 a share for its Brisbane- based partner in a coal seam gas project in Queensland, the newspaper said. Arrow wouldn’t comment on the offer, which may have been made Friday, the Review said. Arrow Energy shares closed at A$3.48 on March 5, valuing it at A$2.6 billion.

Shell, which has a 30 percent stake in Arrow’s Queensland project and a 10 percent interest in its international unit, was concerned by Arrow’s plans to sell down its coal-seam gas assets to fund development of the Fisherman’s Landing liquefied natural gas project near Gladstone, the Review said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gavin Evans at gavinevans@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 7, 2010 14:54 EST

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — Arrow Energy Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s coal-seam gas partner in Australia, won government approval to build a pipeline to the proposed Fisherman’s Landing liquefied natural gas plant in the state of Queensland.

It is one thing to own the right to mine the gas, but it is a different issue to actually get it to the market and, as far as Arrow’s gas, it would seem Shell is in the ideal position to dictate terms, given it is the logical party to commercialise the project.