British Gas PLC and Royal Dutch/Shell Group...

British Gas PLC and Royal Dutch/Shell Group said they had purchased some assets in Tenneco Inc.’s massive selloff of its oil and natural gas division. Royal Dutch/Shell said it would pay $500 million for Tenneco’ assets in Colombia. It said the transaction, made through one of its holding companies, Shell Petroleum Co., should be completed by the end of the year. British Gas, Britain’s natural gas utility, said it paid $194 million for all of Tenneco’s international oil and gas operations outside except for those in Norway and Colombia. British Gas said the package contains total estimated reserves equal to 47 million barrels of oil.