UK majors fend off breakup questions

Both Shell and BP face scrutiny on whether they might be better off as more than one company

There is little evidence that questions over whether BP and Shell should consider ringfencing their legacy oil production businesses and creating one or more different firms for their moves into lower-carbon technologies are going away any time soon. But both companies continue to insist that an integrated strategy is the best approach. The discussion has been rumbling on for months, but was brought into particular focus in late October when investment fund Third Point revealed it had initiated a position in Shell over the second and third quarters and was advising it to “match its business units with unique shareholder constituencies who may be interested in different things” and “allow eac