Idemitsu eyes buyout of Shell Sekiyu

Another way for the gas companies to keep the prices high! With little or no competition, they will be able to charge whatever they like. I had to laugh when I read the comment, "Royal Dutch Shell will likely exit the oil-refining and sales business in Japan, due to thin margins caused by fierce competition," I'm pretty sure the oil and gas companies are making a very good profit gouging the customers in Japan!

Markx,

Actually foreign concerns have been exiting the J-market for a number of years now as I posted on some other thread about overall decline of economic activity in Japan, fair number said I was wrong but I wasn't & here is another example.

Japan for large macro stuff is simply no longer worth the bother/investment, Japan MUST now manage decline in lots of areas of business.

As for people being screwed........come on its common knowledge that Japanese consumers have been getting screwed left right & centre for decades is a great many areas of their lives so Jpn-Inc can prosper!

But alas those days ENDED late 80s early 90s but only in the last 10yrs or so have some locals begun to grasp some of whats happening

In the meanwhile fill your car up if you have once prices are low of late.

Time will tell how Japan manages decline, I expect a lot more pain to follow.

In a shrinking market there is no other real choice but to merge. Refinery cost are astronomical. Cars are becoming more fuel efficient while less enlargeable people are getting cars / licences and drivers are also declining due to age and population. Consolidation and head off shore for green pastures,....... or brown.

The reason Royal Dutch Shell is seeking an exit plan is the expected large investment they will need if they continue business in Japan. With Hydrogen Fuel Cell powered automobile coming into the market and heavy weight JX announcing they will place a hydogen fuel pump at all of their 2000 GS by 2020 shell did not see return of invest in the short term so they sold out when they still can make a profit. If you take Hybrid automobiles as an example for acceptence to the market, by 2030 60~80% of all the automobiles would be powered by fuel cells and gasoline internal combustion engines would become a minority at that point.