U.K. gas giant BG Group has upped its offer to buy all the equity in Australia’s Pure Energy in a bid that values the target company at A$995 ($637 million) but makes the offer unconditional.

Shareholders must now contemplate whether A$8 per share stands in the bidding war for Arrow BG is waging with Arrow Energy Ltd. According to BG, the latest Arrow offer is A$3.00 in cash and 1.57 Arrow shares per Pure share.

BG said its offer eliminated the risk shareholders would have to take if they went with Arrow and then had to finance a liquefied natural gas plant to commercialize their prized shale gas holdings.

Arrow, meanwhile, is fresh from announcing a 100 percent hike in profit and is understood to have Shell backing some $700 million in projects.

Shell, too, is coal-bed gas player and has quietly taken out concessions is unheralded hydrocarbons provinces like Sweden, where conventional hydrocarbons are confined to coastal areas.

Tags: Arrow Energy Ltd, BG Group, Pure Energy Resources