The President of Guyana Invited Chevron to Enter into a $150 Billion Oil Production Project
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali would welcome the entry of American Chevron Corp. into the capital of the operator of the Stabroek Block oil production project off the coast of the state. Ali told the Financial Times.
Stabroek Block is one of the most “cash” deposits discovered in recent decades, the newspaper notes. ExxonMobil owns 45% of its operator, Hess Corp. – 30%, Chinese CNOOC – 25%.
In October 2023, Chevron agreed to buy Hess for $53 billion, including participation in this project, which is worth more than $150 billion.
In March this year, it became known that Exxon had filed a lawsuit with the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris to assert the right of first refusal to purchase Hess’ stake in Stabroek.
Exxon is confident that the agreement between the participants in the Guyana project regarding the priority right of Exxon and CNOOC to buy out a share in the oil field is applicable to the Chevron-Hess deal.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods has said that acquiring Hess’ stake in Stabroek is “one of the options” for Exxon if the claim is successful.
Ali said Exxon’s growing stake could raise competition concerns. “We think the partnership is working well,” he explained.
At the same time, the issue of entering another large company into the project will have to be decided by the existing partners, the president said. From his point of view, it would be good if “the largest operators from the United States operated in Guyana.”
Hess shareholders will vote on the deal with Chevron on Tuesday. A significant bias in favor of any outcome is not expected, with more investors expressing concerns about the transaction, the FT writes.
Exxon has previously made it clear that it has no plans to outbid Chevron’s bid.
