Shell and BG: 1 + 1 = 5

LNG and Brazil will create immense long-term value for Shell and BG Group

Thirteenyears ago, BG Group sold its share of Kazakhstan’s Kashagan project and turned its gaze to liquefied natural gas and exploration offshore Brazil. The wisdom of those decisions, now, seems unimpeachable. But then - even though more than 40 years had passed since the first commercial shipment of LNG, in 1959 - LNG still felt adventurous, fraught with risk because of its mighty capital requirements, elaborate and time-consuming engineering demands, and uncertain market outlook. Brazil’s Santos basin was in an even more embryonic state, its pre-salt fields still a twinkling in the eyes of geophysicists. And Kashagan, the largest oilfield in development outside the Middle East, hadn’t yet