Chris Bryant, Columnist

Shell's Saudi Aramco Option

Cheap oil makes it difficult to sell assets. Spinning them off is an option

May 13, 2016 at 6:30 AM UTC

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for the Financial Times.

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Cheap oil crimping your spending plans? Sitting on a bunch of valuable upstream oil assets that could be monetized? How about a mammoth IPO? No, not Saudi Arabia. I'm talking about Royal Dutch Shell.

Shell is Europe's third-biggest company by market value. But after the $54 billion acquisition of BG Group, its net debt is by far the largest: an eye-watering $70 billion.