Equals

In terms of physical natural gas sales in North America, BP plc appears to have no equals, once again topping NGI’s fourth quarter and year-end 2003 survey. BP reported gas sales of 22.3 Bcf/d in the final quarter of last year, up substantially from 18.1 Bcf/d reported a year earlier. The London-based major also showed a 29% gain year-over-year, reporting 20.2 Bcf/d in sales during 2003, compared with 15.6 Bcf/d in 2002.

Drilling companies Global Marine Inc. and Santa Fe International Corp. completed their $2.3 billion merger of equals after favorable shareholder votes Tuesday. The combined company will have a large fleet of 59 offshore drilling rigs and 31 land rigs. Under the terms of the deal each share of Global Marine stock was converted into 0.665 of an ordinary share of GlobalSantaFe. Santa Fe International ordinary shares will trade as GlobalSantaFe ordinary shares. The combined company will have approximately 233 million shares outstanding. “Meeting the challenges of our marketplace requires a company that can embrace the changing needs of our customers as well as maintain the financial strength necessary to operate effectively through volatile business cycles,” said GlobalSantaFe CEO C. Stedman “Sted” Garber. GlobalSantaFe’s fourteen-member board of directors includes seven directors from Global Marine’s previous board and seven directors from Santa Fe International’s previous board.

Chevron Corp.’s proposal to acquire Texaco Inc. for $35.7billion in stock, if given the green light by federal regulators,would put the merged company into the “Super Major League” ofproducers worldwide and domestically. In the United States alone,it would become the third largest natural gas and oil producer.