In a de­vel­op­ment that is be­ing care­ful­ly mon­i­tored in Port-of-Spain, Shell is re­port­ed­ly as­sess­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a po­ten­tial ac­qui­si­tion of BP, Bloomberg re­port­ed yes­ter­day, cit­ing peo­ple fa­mil­iar with the mat­ter.

Shell is mon­i­tor­ing stock and oil price trends be­fore mak­ing a move.

The de­ci­sion to pro­ceed de­pends on BP's de­clin­ing stock val­ue.