Ann: Monthly Drilling Report - February 2015, page-44

The layest in The Australian today....

Royal Dutch Shell is in talks to acquire BG Group, according to people familiar with the matter.

BG, a gas producer, has a market capitalisation of £31 billion ($60.2bn), meaning a deal for the company would be one of the year’s biggest.
BG is best known in Australia for its development of the mammoth $25bn Queensland Curtis LNG project.
It would be a rare megadeal in the energy patch, where oil prices have declined sharply since the summer.
In the first quarter, there were only $US19.1bn ($25bn) in oil and gas deals, according to Dealogic.
A deal of this size also would solidify what was already shaping up to be a banner year for mergers and acquisitions. In the first quarter, deal volume rose 24 per cent to $US874.1bn globally.
In February, BG said it was writing down the value of its oil-and-gas assets by nearly $US9bn, as the company adjusts to the plunge in oil prices.
Shell also has taken steps to adjust to lower commodity prices. In January, the company said it would curb its planned spending over the next three years by $US15bn and scale back on shale investments.

Shell has a market capitalisation of $US192.4bn.