AOE's progress is following a similar pattern to the BG-QGC...

AOE's progress is following a similar pattern to the BG-QGC deal.

Shell pretty much got their foot in the door last year with their $1 billion's worth of interest & let AOE do the hard yards i.e takeover Beach's 40%, complete Braemar power station, brief-tussle about Pure Energy & the final chapter was the recent LNG Ltd deal, besides the usual drilling ahead & proving the reserves.

Only thing that AOE didn't have, is a direct LNG sales order. But with their acquisition of LNG Ltd, they r responsible for selling the good stuff to Toyoda. So all in all, the score-board was kept ticking. All Shell had to do was come into bat & hit the winning runs, sooner or later !!

I guess with so much happening in this sector, the fruit must have been ripe for picking, as we saw that initial buzz last August for $3 bil, which wasn't enough to swing AOE, so now with Petrochina as their buddy, the offer was sweetened to $3.3b by Shell.

As for Petrochina, well they've observed how CNOOC was wooed by BG last May, first to buy the LNG frm Gladstone & then taking a 10% interest in the project & reserving the rights to the initial LNG trains.

Smart way to do biz is to buy out the operator. Time & time again we see a cashed up bigger player making the move, all is good for now.