ExxonMobil has “no interest” in Hess purchase amidst Chevron dispute, CEO says
(Bloomberg) – The boss of Exxon Mobil Corp. said Monday that it has no interest in buying Hess Corp. outright, despite taking Chevron Corp. to arbitration over its proposed $52 billion merger with the other company.
“If we were interested in doing something with Hess, we wouldn’t have waited for Chevron” to sign its deal, Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods told the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference Monday.
But Exxon wants to reserve the right to consider buying Hess’s 30% stake in offshore Guyana oil fields at some point in the future, Woods said.
Exxon’s aims in its arbitration case are threefold, he added: to “secure and confirm” its pre-emption rights, to “understand” the value of the stake implied by the Chevron deal, and to “evaluate that value and do what’s in the interests of Exxon Mobil shareholders.”
