Pennzoil receives FTC request on Shell merger

HOUSTON, Texas, May 21 Reuters reported that motor oil maker Pennzoil-Quaker State Co.said it had received a request from the Federal Trade Commission for extra information about its acquisition by Royal Dutch/Shell.

Pennzoil said in a statement late on Monday that the request appeared to involve its activities in base oil -- the refined oil base that is used to make lubricants -- and passenger car motor oil. It said it would continue to cooperate fully with the FTC's review of the $1.8 billion takeover.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group, one of the world's top three oil companies, agreed to buy Pennzoil-Quaker State in March. The deal will take the Anglo-Dutch group from nowhere to number one in U.S. lubricants and lift its world lubricants market share to 12 percent from nine.

Pennzoil, maker of the top two motor oil brands in the United States and owner of the Jiffy Lube chain of over 2,000 oil change shops, said it believed the transaction would be completed in the second half of 2002.

In March, when the $22 a share deal was announced, Shell's head of oil products Paul Skinner said he hoped regulatory authorities would not order any disposals, and that it would "flow through on the current basis".

"They might have to sell a few bits and pieces now but I don't think Shell will let that stand in its way," said one London analyst on Tuesday.

A Shell spokesman said that it too would cooperate fully with the FTC.