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00:00Shell says it has no intention of making an offer for BP, having denied a report that it was in talks with its London listed rival. Now for more on this. We're joined by Bill Kennedy, our senior executive editor for energy and Commodities. Well, I mean, this is something that's been going on for a while. There's been speculation Bloomberg wrote something on it back in May because BP is so weak. Shell now denying these allegations. That's correct. Obviously, BP has been a big story in the oil industry over the recent months, as you say, from seeing it's underperformed its peers. Its strategy has been in question. The CEO isn't getting the best notices. So it's inevitable that you do get that M & A speculation. And of course, Shell is in the frame as the most likely and in some ways probably the only really viable buyer creating an enormous UK oil company. As you say, we wrote a couple of months back that they had been running the numbers. The Journal took that forward, saying that there had been some to talks. Now, Shell has denied that very strongly. And what's important about that is that will shell out from making a bid under UK takeover code for the next six months in most circumstances. So in that sense, it does move the story forward and I think it will probably refocus attention a little bit away from the M & A story and towards how effectively CEO Mario CLOs, his strategy is and what Elliott, the active interest investor the company owns 5% of BP is going to do to really drive strategy forward and try and raise returns. So what happens in the UK has a conduct authority basically says that because they said they won't go after it now, they can't do anything for six months. Is that right? That's correct. Once you said we're not going to make a bid, you were bound by that for the next six months. There are two exceptions. One, if someone else comes in and makes a bid for BP, and then you're your hands are untied. And secondly, if BP approaches Shell and said, we'd like to talk about you buying us, they can reopen the discussions, but they cannot themselves make an approach to the BP board for at least six months.

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Shell Quells Speculation About Potential BP Takeover Bid

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