Japanese oil companies are increasingly looking at mergers, as they try to compete in a contracting domestic oil market and against other Asia-Pacific refiners for more lucrative exports. Japan’s third-largest refiner by capac- ity, Idemitsu, is in talks to take over Showa Shell, the fifth-largest, as political pressure increases for further corporate streamlining in the face of falling domes- tic demand. Showa Shell, which is worth an estimated ￥440bn ($3.7bn), is 35pc- owned by Shell, while state-owned Saudi Aramco has 15pc.
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