Anyone hear that Shell has eyes on BPX?

Where are you seeing that they are safe?

nosoupforyou said:

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Anyone hear that Shell has eyes on BPX?

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Solid No….

this deal has me thinking. would anyone be looking at taking out Plains? Enterprise value of around $20B right now.

that might create some regulatory head aches.

Fredd said:

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Where are you seeing that they are safe?

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Not hearing that at all - just wish they were

nosoupforyou said:

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Anyone hear that Shell has eyes on BPX?

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it will never die

My money is on a MRO / DVN merger and then a CVX / FANG takeout.

Good bets.

DripAG08 said:

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My money is on a MRO / DVN merger and then a CVX / FANG takeout.

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CVX better dig deep then…

The Sunoco Q&A was pretty interesting. CEO mostly talked about NuStar's refined products and ammonia systems. Very little mention of their crude assets.

Funny moment when someone asked about how this fits with Energy Transfer's portfolio? CEO was like I want to be clear this is a Sunoco transaction.

We all get that Sunoco is a their own entity. But, no one believes ET didn't give their blessing beforehand.

ConocoPhillips gonna sit this out? Or they get a smaller company?

They made the best purchases this cycle imo. Not sure they need to chase. They're also imo, the company that XOM should have purchased...

What's the relationship with Energy Transfer and Sunoco? I thought Sunoco was acquired by them.

Just pulled up from ET10-K:

The Partnership (Energy Transfer) owns a controlling interest in Sunoco LP which is engaged in the wholesale distribution of motor fuels to convenience stores, independent dealers, commercial customers and distributors, as well as the retail sale of motor fuels and merchandise through Sunoco LP operated convenience stores and retail fuel sites. As of December 31, 2022, our interest in Sunoco LP consisted of 100% of the general partner and IDRs, as well as 28.5 million common units.

Furlock Bones said:

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The Sunoco Q&A was pretty interesting. CEO mostly talked about NuStar's refined products and ammonia systems. Very little mention of their crude assets.

Funny moment when someone asked about how this fits with Energy Transfer's portfolio? CEO was like I want to be clear this is a Sunoco transaction.

We all get that Sunoco is a their own entity. But, no one believes ET didn't give their blessing beforehand.

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SUN may be their own entity, but ET absolutely negotiated and orchestrated the deal.

Cyp0111 said:

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They made the best purchases this cycle imo. Not sure they need to chase. They're also imo, the company that XOM should have purchased...

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They got pockets but not that deep….

nosoupforyou said:

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ConocoPhillips gonna sit this out? Or they get a smaller company?

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Contrary to some beliefs, companies like CP have teams of people working and evaluating acquisitions and divestitures 24/7. And a lot of what people declare were responses to an acquisition done by a rival were in the works for months if not years before that was known.

Both can be true at the same time. M&A teams can be vetting prospects for a long time just casually and then when its time to hit the go button everything happens fast. And other companies starting a round of mergers can absolutely get decision makers to call up the lawyers and the banks and get something hammered out. Hangups either disappear or become stonewalls.

Source: I've spent too much time with my M&A lawyer friends and their buddies.

It is absolutely brutal. While my buddy has a lot of great insights and gets to work on super cool big name projects, I couldn't work the hours he does. Theres a lot of golden handcuffs. Lots of people trying to stick it out to make partner to have a slightly better work life balance OR the hopes that by making partner it unlocks a general counsel position at a F500 company that wasn't available as an L7.

And then if he doesn't want to do M&A work, or finds GC gigs too boring, he's in the same boat as the rest of us trying to make a big career jump into something completely different.

I mean, his yearly spend on entertainment is larger than my take home salary, but it aint worth it in my mind.

Entertainment for him and his family or for clients?

Is your buddy partner or at the very sr. associate band ? Comp at the sr. associate band at one of the top 5-7 shops is north of $700K.

But the jump to partner is hard and I work with most of the deal teams at these places daily and the partners now are working the same hours mainly.

Most are miserable but stuck.

Sea Speed said:

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Entertainment for him and his family or for clients?

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Entertainment for him as in vacations, drinks, nice dinners.

one MEEN Ag said:

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Sea Speed said:

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Entertainment for him and his family or for clients?

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Entertainment for him as in vacations, drinks, nice dinners.

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While that is im sure very nice, I dont think i would ever be able to commit that much of my time to something like that. As it is, I generally have over 6 months of the year off. I'm not sure my wife could handle me gone much more than that ha.

6 months off?

Comeby! said:

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6 months off?

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and sometimes when I am on i get to do nothing. I've worked 3 days this month, but on the clock for 21. The rest has been at home or in a beach town Brazilian hotel. My entertainment budget isn't 6 figures though, so there is that.

ETA this is NOT a normal schedule in my line of work.

Anyone here work for the rail road commission? I've recently had an interview with them for an inspector position . Was curious about the culture and atmosphere . Or simply any tips or advice. Feel free to DM if necessary . Thanks!

I work with the inspectors on audits of our projects from time to time.

It's not something I would like but I have some insight if you want.

It's arduous and lots of paperwork.

Cyp0111 said:

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Is your buddy partner or at the very sr. associate band ? Comp at the sr. associate band at one of the top 5-7 shops is north of $700K.

But the jump to partner is hard and I work with most of the deal teams at these places daily and the partners now are working the same hours mainly.

Most are miserable but stuck.

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The band of M&A friends I interact with most are either A) shooting for partner B) Saw the writing on the wall years ago and moved to a different company C) Got out of the industry all together but are still high performers elsewhere D) moved into recruiting/placing lawyers in boutique firms. (This guy has the best W/L balance btw).

Partner hopefuls would realistically only see hours reduce marginally, but granted it would (most of the time) be the worst hours worked they'd get back.

From the multiple friends I've had that are shooting for partner at different law firms/consulting corporations, the biggest jump into partner is being able to not just do great work, but be able to bring in clients. So you've got to have a lot of connections and a good reputation that the company extending you a set of golden handcuffs knows you'll pay off.

Its a game I would loathe to play, but it its very interesting to watch from afar. Was at a wedding rehearsal dinner one time and had a friend of a friend go set up shop in the corner with a microsoft surface pad, redline some documents for an hour, and rejoin us.

M&A is worse in spurts at a true, top firm biglaw job, but all of the associates have pretty brutal hours regardless of the field. I thought the upper band was more like low $600k though, counting bonus.

topher06 said:

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M&A is worse in spurts at a true, top firm biglaw job, but all of the associates have pretty brutal hours regardless of the field. I thought the upper band was more like low $600k though, counting bonus.

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No doubt M&A law work is long hours, but I've been the client many times and I assume the partners are making far more than $600k per year. Our bills regularly hit 7 figures with only 3-6 attorneys working on our deals for 2-4 months. Those same attorneys were typically working 1 or 2 other transactions at the same time. This is at a mid-market firm that does great work and I felt like we were getting far better value versus K&E or V&E.

I think he's talking about sr. associate which i largely agree with. $600-700K is what they make, esp. if they lateral.

If Kirkland, Latham, V&E are 4-5 others are in a deal. Its gonna be special.

I was recently in a sub $250MM EV deal that had a bunch of these names and they ate all the meat off the bone with fees.

nu awlins ag said:

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nosoupforyou said:

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Anyone hear that Shell has eyes on BPX?

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Solid No….

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Still think we hear something on bp this year?

Charlie Murphy said:

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nu awlins ag said:

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nosoupforyou said:

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Anyone hear that Shell has eyes on BPX?

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Solid No….

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Still think we hear something on bp this year?

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Possibly. It's January 24th so there is still a ways to go. But Shell isn't pursuing BPX. They got out of just about everything US onshore for a reason….

Shell is not the company I would model capital allocation against, with that said, the new CEO seems to get it and making pragmatic changes.

European Supermajors are terrible capital allocators given perceived social contract. Total is the only one that seems pragmatic.