Conoco Kicks Off Oil Industry’s Carbon Shell Game

Royal Dutch Shell ’s grain of sand is turning out to be another oil producer’s pearl.

On Monday, Shell announced it would sell its Permian business to ConocoPhillips for $9.5 billion in cash. There was probably a limited pool of potential buyers: Oil majors are under immense shareholder pressure to keep capital and environmental discipline, while few independent oil and gas producers have the balance sheet for a deal of this scale.