2000 to 2016
On 23 October 2000, a further demerger separated the company into Lattice Group and BG Group.[11] 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.[11] In 2002, Lattice merged with National Grid Company to become National Grid Transco which was renamed National Grid in 2005.[11]
In September 2007, BG Group delisted its ADRs from the New York Stock Exchange.[12] Instead its shares began trading on the US over-the-counter market.[13]
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.[14] 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,[15] 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.[16] In October 2011, BG Group signed a US$8 billion deal with Cheniere Energy to export liquefied natural gas from the United States.[17][18]
In October 2012, BG sold its 65% majority stake in Gujarat Gas Company for $470 million to the state-run Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.[19] In January 2014, BG Group announced the initial drilling of an oil exploration well offshore in Kenya.[20]
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.[21][22] Finalisation of the BG acquisition by Royal Dutch Shell was completed on 15 February 2016.[23]
