BG Group

Origins

The company was created in 1997 when British Gas plc divested Centrica and became BG plc, which was reorganised in 1999 as BG Group plc.

2000 to 2016

On 23 October 2000, a further demerger separated the company into Lattice Group and BG Group. Lattice took ownership of Transco (the gas transporter for the UK), Advantica (gas engineering and consultancy specialist) along with the property and transport companies and BG Group took ownership of gas fields and other assets. In 2002, Lattice merged with National Grid Company to become National Grid Transco which was renamed National Grid in 2005.

In September 2007, BG Group delisted its ADRs from the New York Stock Exchange. Instead its shares began trading on the US over-the-counter market.

In June 2008, BG Group made a US$13.1 billion bid to acquire Origin Energy, Australia's largest coal-seam gas producer, but were outmanoeuvred by ConocoPhillips, who offered to invest US$9.1 billion in a joint venture with Origin. However, in October 2008, BG Group bought Queensland Curtis LNG for US$3.4bn in order to operate in Asia's liquefied natural gas market, and on 1 November 2010, BG Group announced plans to invest £9.3bn on the world's first project to liquefy and ship gas produced from coal deposits – the first in a series of "coal seam methane" projects in the region of eastern Australia; by late 2014, this was sending gas produced from coal deposits by pipeline to a terminal in Gladstone on the east coast. In October 2011, BG Group signed a US$8 billion deal with Cheniere Energy to export liquefied natural gas from the United States.

In October 2012, BG sold its 65% majority stake in Gujarat Gas Company for $470 million to the state-run Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. In January 2014, BG Group announced the initial drilling of an oil exploration well offshore in Kenya.

In April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire BG Group for $70 billion, subject to regulatory and shareholder agreement. The deal gave BG shareholders 19% of the combined group, and gave Shell extensive access to BG's LNG assets, accelerating its global LNG and deep water strategy. Finalisation of the BG acquisition by Royal Dutch Shell was completed on 15 February 2016.

BG Group's main business was the exploration and extraction of natural gas and oil and the production of liquefied natural gas. It sold these products to wholesale customers such as retail gas suppliers and electricity generating companies. It also owned some gas pipelines and was involved in some power generation projects. It was active around the world, with only a minority of its business being in the UK. BG Group was a multinational company with operations in 27 countries. Key areas for the company included:

Australia

QGC, coal seam gas upstream plays in Queensland's Surat and Bowen basin, and Curtis Island based LNG plant

Brazil

Controversies

RepRisk listed the BG Group as seventh in its top ten of "Most Environmentally and Socially Controversial Companies of 2010". Reasons for the company's inclusion are as follows.

The BG Group were associated with deep-sea drilling plans in the Sicilian Strait. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO) consortium that includes BG was reportedly fined US$21 million for environmental violations at the onshore Karachaganak Oil and Gas Field.

BG subsidiary Queensland Gas Company's Queensland Curtis LNG Project had caused controversy in Australia.

The exploitation of the Tarija natural gas reserves in Bolivia where another BG subsidiary operated.

The report also criticized the remuneration given to its chief executive who had received GBP 28 million in cash, shares and pension contributions in 2009.