Reuters article published Tuesday 23 December 2014 under the headline: Japanese refining merger talks could spur more consolidation
It seems that the forecast wave of mergers in the oil industry arising from the collapse in oil prices has kicked off in Japan. Also fits in with Shell’s fire sale strategy.
Extracts
Consolidation looks to have kicked off with Japan’s No. 2 refiner Idemitsu seeking to buy No. 5 Showa Shell in a 500 billion yen ($4.2 billion) deal that would bring them close to industry leader JX Holdings.
The combined company would have annual sales of about 8 trillion yen, making it the second biggest after the leader JX Holdings and control about 30 percent of Japan’s gasoline market. JX has 33 percent of Japan’s oil market.
Consolidation is further supported by the crash in oil, which has seen prices almost halve since June, resulting in falling stock prices for energy firms and reduced asset values, offering opportunities to cash rich investors.
Alleged industrial espionage by Shell Oil Company: A senior individual in the U.S. intelligence community was authorised by U.S. Dept. of Defense government attorneys to confirm to me that an investigation directed at Shell USA had been initiated by the US Department of the Navy, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).
By John Donovan
By John Donovan
According to a report in the Nikkei business daily Royal Dutch Shell will likely exit the oil-refining and sales business in Japan.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Dec 19, 2014, 3:28 PM ET: By DAN JOLING Associated Press
By John Donovan
Four of these experts were from Shell, a prominent member of history’s top 90 polluters. Shell was also paying the costs. Its logo was everywhere, cuddling alongside National Geographic’s. The event was hijacked by Shell…
By John Donovan
The FTSE 100 has been dipping perilously in the past few weeks, giving up 722 points (10.5%) from its recent high of 6,905 on 4 September to Monday’s close of 6,183 — and if it can lose that much in three months it could certainly drop to 6,000 or lower by the end of December. 
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