(Bloomberg) — Shell Plc agreed to buy Canadian oil and gas producer ARC Resources Ltd. for $13.6 billion, its biggest deal in more than a decade as it seeks to sustain output in the long term.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s the first major acquisition in the three-year tenure of Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan, who has been pressed recently to bolster the company\u2019s fossil fuel reserves. In the absence of major discoveries, and with Shell saying last year it won\u2019t bid for troubled rival BP Plc, a smaller deal has been the likeliest path to growth.<\/p>\n
ARC\u2019s low-cost shale gas and liquid hydrocarbon production complements Shell\u2019s existing operations in Canada, which include a stake in a major liquefied natural gas export facility on the west coast. The country, which under Prime Minister Mark Carney has accelerated approval of energy projects, is now core to Shell\u2019s ambitions, Sawan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis establishes Canada as a heartland for Shell,\u201d Sawan said in a statement announcing the transaction on Monday. The deal \u201cstrengthens our resource base for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal reinforces the London-based company\u2019s move to refocus on its core oil and gas business in a drive to boost returns to investors. ARC\u2019s assets will raise the compound annual growth rates of Shell\u2019s production between 2025 and 2030 to 4%, up from 1% previously. It will help sustain liquids production toward 2030 and beyond at about 1.4 million barrels a day.<\/p>\n
ARC\u2019s shares jumped as much as 24% to the highest in more than 10 years. Shell dropped 1.7% to 3,252.5 pence in London.<\/p>\n
LNG Canada<\/p>\n
The transaction will help support output from LNG Canada, an important export project that gives access to Asian markets to the country\u2019s natural gas resources. A second phase of expansion is possible at the project, in which Shell has a 40% stake, although Sawan told reporters acquiring ARC doesn\u2019t mean a final investment decision is imminent until at least the end of the year.<\/p>\n
ARC\u2019s operations are situated in the same region as Shell\u2019s Groundbirch asset in British Columbia, which supplies LNG Canada, and the Gold Creek project in neighboring Alberta, according to the statement. The acquisition also gives Shell exposure to another export project with ARC\u2019s supply deal into Cedar LNG, a smaller facility under construction nearby.<\/p>\n
The ARC deal will be Shell\u2019s biggest acquisition since buying BG Group in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shell will pay with about 25% cash and 75% shares, at a premium of 20% to ARC\u2019s 30-day weighted average price.<\/p>\n
It marks a pivot for the company\u2019s North American operations after it largely sold its position in the oil sands in 2017 to Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. The London-based company also sold its US shale assets in the Permian Basin to ConocoPhillips in 2021.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the biggest Canadian oil and gas deal since 2012, when CNOOC Ltd bought oil sands producer Nexen Energy Ulc. for $15.1 billion at the time.<\/p>\n
The boards of both companies unanimously supported the transaction, according to the statement. It is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to shareholder, court and regulatory approvals.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Ruth Liao.<\/p>\n
(Updates with comments from Shell CEO and details throughout.)<\/p>\n
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\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — Shell Plc agreed to buy Canadian oil and gas producer ARC Resources Ltd. for $13.6 billion,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10871,6518,17,3941,445,10872,11063],"class_list":{"0":"post-24081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-arc-resources-ltd","9":"tag-bloomberg","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-oil-and-gas","12":"tag-prime-minister-mark-carney","13":"tag-shell-plc","14":"tag-wael-sawan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}