(World Oil) – Exxon Mobil Corp. said it will be “business as usual” in its massive Guyana oil field if it loses its arbitration case against Chevron Corp. and Hess Corp.
Exxon remains confident it will prevail in the case over the field’s ownership at the International Chamber of Commerce, Neil Chapman, Exxon’s senior vice president, said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York on Thursday. But there will be “no change for us” if Exxon loses, he said.
The ICC hearing ended this week and the panel of three judges is now considering its conclusions, Chapman said.
Chevron agreed to buy Hess for $53 billion in 2023 to gain access to the smaller company’s 30% share of Guyana’s Stabroek Block, which is 45% owned and operated by Exxon. But Exxon and China’s CNOOC Ltd., another partner in the block, believe they have a right of first refusal over the Hess’s stake. Chevron and Hess claim the right doesn’t apply because their deal is structured as a corporate merger rather than an asset sale.
“You have to protect your contractual right. The Chinese believe the same thing, and that’s why we went to arbitration,” Chapman said. “But if the judges decide that’s not the case, then we get a new partner, business carries on as normal.”
