Shell admits to mulling BP bid

OIL giant Shell considered making a bid for rival BP in the past two years, according to an interview in today’s issue of German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Shell chief executive Peter Voser said: “I can’t imagine that there is anybody in our industry who did not look into this scenario. At the end of the day we are all businesspeople.”

But Voser remained tight-lipped when asked if Shell was currently considering mounting a takeover bid.

BP was the subject of intense takeover speculation following the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, which killed 11 workers and injured a further 70 staff. The resulting oil spill led to America’s worst environmental disaster.