Shell leapfrogged Total to become the UK’s biggest net oil and gas producer after completing its £47billion takeover of BG Group.
The “mega-merger” was approved by shareholders from both companies last month and went through yesterday.
It creates a firm with a net output of 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day in the UK alone.
A company’s net, or equity output is the amount it produces based on the size of its share in an oil or gas field.
Total was the UK’s biggest equity producer last year, pumping out 107,000boe a day.
The French oil major boosted its capacity this month when the Laggan-Tormore stream came on stream.
Total has a 60% stake in Laggan-Tormore, a £3.5billion gas development west of Shetland, which is expected to produce 90,000boe per day, or about 8% of the UK’s total gas requirement.
If output estimates are correct, the addition of Laggan-Tormore will take Total’s daily equity production to about 160,000boe.
Shell’s swoop for BG has beefed up its capacity considerably.
Berkshire-based BG, which was delisted from the London Stock Exchange yesterday, produced 97,000boe per day in the UK last year. Adding Shell’s own net output gives the combined total of 200,000boe for 2015.
BG assets included a 21.7% stake in the North Sea’s biggest field, Buzzard, which yielded 36,100boe a day last year, as well as 14.1% of the Elgin and Franklin fields. BG also had full ownership of the Everest and Lomond fields.
These UK assets, among others, have now gone to Shell, along with overseas assets including licences in Australia and Brazil.
BG was also developing the £2.4billion Jackdaw field in the North Sea, though an investment decision was not expected until 2017 or 2018.
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