The take-over of Reading-based BG Group (www.bg-group.com) by Royal Dutch Shell (www.shell.com) has taken a step closer to completion after receiving approval from the European Commission.

The two energy giants announced in April that they had reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended cash and share offer.

At the time, BG chief executive Helge Lund said the offer delivers “attractive returns” to shareholders and has “strong strategic logic”.

In a statement, the EC concluded that the take-over will not raise competition concerns: “Shell will not benefit from too much influence in areas such as oil and gas exploration, the liquefaction of gas and the wholesale supply
of liquefied natural gas — LNG.”

Moreover, the EC added that Shell will be “unable to shut out its competitors from access to its liquefaction facilities that supply LNG into the European Economic Area or from gas transportation and processing infrastructure in the North Sea”.

This approval is one of several regulatory clearances required for the merger to be finalised and follows clearance obtained from CADE (the Brazilian competition authority) in July.

Other pre-conditional approvals are required from Australia and China; regulatory filings have been submitted for each of these approvals.