Shell Eyes BP Takeover While Drenched in Gas, Cash, and Climate Denial

There are corporate villains, and then there’s Shell—the Bond villain of Big Oil, now openly toying with the idea of swallowing BP whole like a boa constrictor eyeing a stunned rat. With BP’s renewable daydreams in flames and its share price gasping for relevance, Shell’s chief executive Wael Sawan has stepped forward as the calm, calculating undertaker, declaring at the AGM that “the bar for mergers and acquisitions is very high”—which in Shell-speak translates to: “We’ll wait until they’re cheap enough to loot.”

Shell, worth a towering £147 billion, is circling a deflated BP (£58 billion and falling) like a vulture with an offshore drilling rig strapped to its back. Behind the scenes, advisers are allegedly polishing the brass knuckles for a corporate raid—just waiting for oil prices to line up and BP’s valuation to hit rock bottom.

Let’s not pretend this is about strategy. It’s about consolidation of gas dominance. Shell isn’t merely doubling down on fossil fuels—it’s gilding them. At the very same AGM, Shell shareholders were treated to Sawan’s gas-scented vision for the future: global domination of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market. Shell wants to be, and I quote, “the leading integrated gas and LNG player.” Translation: more pipelines, more tankers, more emissions—all camouflaged with PR buzzwords like “transition” and “resilience.”

Even a fifth of Shell’s own shareholders—usually a docile bunch—raised their eyebrows and their voting cards, backing a resolution demanding more transparency about the company’s climate-defying gas expansion. That resolution may have been defeated (what’s a little dissent when you have BlackRock in your corner?), but it triggered a legal requirement to consult investors again. Shell must now hold awkward conversations about how liquefying fossil fuels and torching the planet squares with its “net zero” marketing.

Here’s the punchline: Sawan insists Shell is leading the climate transition—by pushing more gas. Yes, gas. The carbon cousin of coal, only dressed in a cleaner-sounding suit. “The biggest contributions to lowering CO₂ emissions have come from gas,” he claimed with a straight face. You’ve got to admire the nerve.

And who’s bankrolling this gas-soaked fantasy? None other than institutional enablers like BlackRock, which continues to shovel money into Shell’s furnace while publishing sustainability reports with all the sincerity of a used car ad. The irony is rich—literally. As Shell lavishes shareholders with buybacks and plots its next fossil-fueled conquest, the world burns a little brighter, and BlackRock’s ESG metrics tick another box: “Engaged with management.”

Shell’s strategy is crystal clear: milk every last cent from fossil fuels while spraying enough green confetti to keep regulators confused and investors sedated. Renewable energy? That was BP’s problem, and look where it got them—dethroned, devalued, and ripe for plunder.

In short, Shell isn’t transitioning. It’s trenching in. And if you think this is about securing energy for the public good, just remember who’s footing the PR bill: you, the taxpayer.

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Disclosure: This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor.

 

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