Shell has agreed to acquire Canadian producer ARC Resources in a transaction valued at about US$16.4 billion including assumed debt and leases, a move that would deepen Shell’s position in the Montney shale basin and immediately add roughly 370,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to its portfolio. Shell said the deal would help lift its expected production growth to 4% a year through 2030, compared with its earlier outlook.
Under the agreed terms, ARC shareholders will receive C$8.20 in cash plus 0.40247 Shell shares for each ARC share. Based on Shell’s share price at the close on April 24, the offer works out to about C$32.80 a share, valuing ARC’s equity at roughly US$13.6 billion and implying a premium to ARC’s recent trading levels.
For Shell, this is really a scale-and-supply play. The company said the acquisition would increase its exposure to long-duration, low-cost gas and liquids production in Canada and add around 2 billion barrels of reserves and resources. That strengthens Shell’s grip on a basin it already knows well and gives it more feedstock optionality tied to Canadian LNG ambitions.
The timing is notable too. News coverage described the transaction as Shell’s biggest acquisition in about a decade, coming at a moment when large energy companies are looking for politically steadier production bases and longer-life resources. ARC’s assets in western Canada fit that description, and they also sit in a region increasingly central to North American gas export plans.
The boards of both companies have backed the agreement, and the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to shareholder, court and regulatory approvals. Until then, the announcement stands as one of the year’s biggest energy deals and a clear sign that Shell wants more production growth from Canada.
