An Oil-Patch Brawl Over a $53 Billion Megadeal Entwines the Legacies of Three CEOs
Energy,Oil,Business,South America,The Americas
Days after striking a $53 billion purchase of Hess HES 0.74%increase; green up pointing triangle, Chevron CVX 0.52%increase; green up pointing triangle Chief Executive Mike Wirth called his counterpart at Exxon Mobil XOM -0.08%decrease; red down pointing triangle to discuss their future partnership in a mega-oil project Chevron would inherit through the deal.
Darren Woods told Wirth he looked forward to collaboration in Guyana, where Exxon and Hess own portions of a buried treasure of 11 billion barrels of oil and gas. Chevron and Exxon have a long-established partnership in projects around the world, one they could expand off the coast of the rainforest-covered South American country, Woods indicated in the October phone call.
Weeks later, Exxon called with a starkly different message for Chevron and Hess: not so fast.
Exxon executives contended they and China’s CNOOC, a third partner in Guyana, have a contractual right to pre-emptively match Chevron’s offer for Hess’s stake in Guyana. Blindsided, Chevron and Hess disagreed. Both sides dug in, and private talks failed. Amid monthslong discussions, Exxon stunned its rivals again by filing for arbitration and ending talks in March. The proceedings could sink Chevron’s largest-ever deal.
