Royal Dutch Shell is in advanced talks to acquire BG Group for around £46bn ($68bn), in a deal that would expand the Anglo-Dutch group’s foothold in some of the world’s most exciting oil provinces and cement its dominance of the global trade in natural gas.
荷兰皇家壳牌(Royal Dutch Shell)正就斥资约460亿英镑（合680亿美元）收购英国天然气集团(BG Group)与后者深入磋商。如达成，这笔交易或将令壳牌掌控世界部分最富产油田，并巩固这家英荷集团在全球天然气贸易中的主导地位。
Since the price of crude began its rapid decline last June, expectations have been high that the oil sector could see a repetition of the mergers and acquisitions fever that reconfigured the industry in the late 1990s — another period of low oil prices.
自去年6月原油价格开始暴跌以来，人们一直预期石油产业或将重演上世纪90年代末的并购热潮。当时处于另一个油价低迷时期，狂热的并购曾改变了整个石油产业的格局。

That created the current crop of big oil companies such as BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil. Shell’s bid is worth about £46bn, according to people familiar with the matter, which represents a 50 per cent premium to BG’s market value. BG shares closed up 6.3 per cent at 910.4p on Tuesday, valuing the company at £30.7bn, before news of the talks broke.
那次并购潮催生了目前这批大型石油公司，包括英国石油(BP)、雪佛龙(Chevron)以及埃克森美孚(ExxonMobil)。知情人士表示，壳牌的收购价码是大约460亿英镑左右，比英国天然气集团的市值高50%。在有关这一磋商的新闻传出之前，英国石油集团的股票周二收涨6.3%，达到每股910.4便士，令该公司市值达到307亿英镑。