BG finance director cashes in some chips

BG has been a star performer among the giant oil and gas companies, thanks to its stake in the huge oil finds being made offshore Brazil and its finance director has decided to take profits on his stake in the company.

Barely a week goes by without any new discovery in the Santos basin, with BG's own reserves in the region now said to be in excess of 10bn barrels.

The oil group's share price reflects the goods news, having nearly quadrupled over the past seven years.

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Given the run of good drilling news, it is perhaps not surprising that BG directors are infrequent sellers.

Finance director Ashley Almanza, though, has decided to cash in some chips, raising £5.3m through a combined sale with his wife of 350,000 shares at £15.192 each.

Almanza's previous sale was a batch of 86,000 shares last September. The price he received then was about £10.73, some 30% lower and indicating how well BG has done with its Brazil investment in the meantime.

Following this latest sale Almanza holds 126,012 BG shares.

He would have done even better if he had managed to complete Thursday's share sale a day earlier as BG was one of main casualties of the Chancellor's raid on North Sea oil companies.

The government decided to increase the tax paid on North Sea oil and gas production to subsidise a 1p a litre cut in fuel duty. Analysts suggest BG Group will be among the most impacted as the North Sea accounts for almost one-quarter of total operations.

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