Shell agrees to buy BG Group for £47bn

Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to one of the biggest oil company buyouts in the past 20 years after securing a £47bn deal for exploration company BG Group.

The deal will result in BG shareholders owning approximately 19 per cent of the combined group, while Shell said it expects the agreement will accelerate its growth strategy in global exploration.

Shell also said it expects the arrangement to generate annual savings of approximately £1.68 billion per annum and that it has also identified further “significant opportunities”.

The deal comes within weeks of BG Group announcing it had produced its first oil from the Knarr field in Norway.

According to BG Group, the Knarr field, discovered in 2008, has estimated reserves of around 80 million barrels of oil, with a production life of at least ten years.

BG currently employs about 5,200 people in 24 countries.