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Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) CEO Darren Woods reiterated that he’s not interested in acquiring Hess (NYSE:HES) as the oil behemoth is involved in an arbitration case with Chevron (NYSE:CVX) over a massive oil block off the coast of Guyana.
“I’ve made it clear in the past that this is not a play for Hess,” Woods said in a CNBC interview earlier on Friday. “We are not interested in a transaction on Hess. This is really about protecting the value that we’ve created as part of that development. Making sure that the preemption rights that we believe exist in the JOA are recognized and confirmed and then understand what the value of the asset is and then what the options are to maximize that value to shareholders.”
“They are a lot of options on the table,” Woods added. “I’m not limiting myself to anyone. We are going to look and see what the cash value of that. First of all we’ll confirm the rights of preemption and then will look to see what the cash value of this asset is within that transaction and then will explore the opportunities that are available to us.”
Woods’ comments come after Hess (HES) warned earlier this month that the arbitration case could drag on until next year, at least six months later than a prior goal of finalizing the deal in the middle of this year.
Hess (HES) said in an SEC filing that it seeks to have the merits of the arbitration heard by Q3, 2024 and complete the arbitration by the end of the year, but it cannot predict the date that the transaction might be completed.
Exxon (XOM) filed a case before the International Chamber of Commerce last month seeking to claim a right to a first refusal over any sale of Hess’ (HES) 30% stake in the massive oil block off the coast of Guyana.
Chevron (CVX) CEO Mike Wirth also told CNBC in a separate interview on CNBC on Friday that if Chevron (CVX) loses the arbitration case, it won’t be able to complete its $53B acquisition of Hess (HES).
“There’s a condition precedent that needs to be satisfied,” Wirth said in the interview. “If an arbitration judgement in the event were to go against Hess’s interpretation of the contract, and we feel very confident that their interpretation is the correct one, then that condition wouldn’t be satisfied, and then the transaction would not close.”
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