A BP (BP) Merger With Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B)?

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

Late word from ThisIsMoney in the UK is that BP (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B) are discussing a merger "which would be producing more than 70% more oil and gas than industry leader ExxonMobil." The deal seems far-fetched.

A merger would certainly allow for significant cost savings, but getting the approval of governments that are already concerned about big oil profits would be another matter. The perception that the largest oil companies have too big a hand in setting prices may not be true, but it creates a reaction that has political ramifications well beyond the profit and loss statements of the big oil firms.

A rumor. That is all.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

HPE Vol: 153,197,465
ENPH Vol: 8,360,053
GLW Vol: 18,152,646
APTV Vol: 6,761,325

Top Losing Stocks

TTD Vol: 21,905,513
INTU Vol: 7,383,018
CTRA Vol: 73,319,495
CBOE Vol: 5,000,011
HP
HPQ Vol: 29,259,826