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Oil industry mergers, takeovers reached 160 billion dollars in 2005
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 03 30 06Mergers and acquisitions in the petroleum production sector reached a total value of 160 billion dollars last year, a level last seen in the late 1990s, the advisory firm Harrison Lovegrove said Wednesday.
The figure is the result of 290 mergers and acquisitions, of which the biggest were the purchase of Burlington by ConocoPhillips and that of Unocal by Chevron.
The former transaction was finalised in December and amounted to about 36 billion dollars, while the latter took place in August and involved almost 20 billion.
Harrison Lovegrove said the level of activity recalled "the era of the mega-mergers of the late 1990s", which included the birth of oil giant ExxonMobil and the purchase of PetroFina by Total.
Transactions between companies operating in North America alone rose in value by 30 percent to 48.4 billion dollars, but represented only 30 percent of the total, compared with an average of 38 percent over the past five years.
"Multi-region" deals that involved groups operating in several countries, including the two biggest last year, amounted to 68.4 billion dollars, or 43 percent of the total.
Details of the figures are to be presented in the group's annual report, which is due to be published in April.
AFP 29 03 06 2057 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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