Chevron will proceed with its $53 billion acquisition of Hess, after it prevailed in a landmark legal battle against larger rival Exxon Mobil to gain access to the largest oil discovery in decades.

Houston

Chevron has won an arbitration case against Exxon Mobil regarding the rights to the Guyana oil field, one of the largest oil discoveries in recent decades. This decision enables Chevron to move forward with its $53 billion acquisition of Hess, whose stake in the Guyana field was considered the most valuable asset in the deal.

Exxon, which holds a 45% stake in the field, argued that a change in Hess's ownership would trigger its right of first refusal to purchase Hess's share. The arbitration ruled in Chevron's favor, allowing the acquisition to proceed. Both companies will now continue as partners in the Guyana project, and Exxon has indicated that their working relationship with Chevron remains stable.

Chevron prevails in mediation over Exxon in Guyana oil assets

We've got some breaking news to interrupt us from Becky Quick, who joins us on the Squawk news line about ExxonMobil. Becky, it must be big. Yeah, this is big news, Joe. I actually just got off the phone with Darren Woods, the chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, and that long-awaited news we've been waiting for out of the arbitration with Chevron and Hess over who owns the rights to the Guyana oil field has come through. Chevron has been successful. Chevron won in this arbitration case. This has been a huge issue because this is over what happens with the Chevron acquisition of Hess. It's a $53 billion deal with Hess, and huge news at the time, but the biggest asset in that was the Guyana Reserve. Chevron went to arbitration over what would happen to that in the change of ownership because the way they had their contracts written, Exxon was believing that a change of ownership equaled the change where they would get right of first refusal to buy out the stake of Hess in that. If that had happened, if Exxon had been successful, this would have been a huge deal killer for that Hess acquisition by Chevron because that was seen as the most important crown jewel in the entire thing. Well, the mediation came out at about 5, 10 a.m. this morning. I just got off the phone with Darren Woods, the chairman and CEO of Exxon, and Chevron was successful in its mediation. That means that this clears the way for that deal with Hess. Again, this is all over the Staybrook field in Guyana. This has been a huge find, a very successful find. This is a situation where 45% of it was owned or is owned by Exxon. There was a stake owned by Hess and then another portion owned by CNOOC, and Chevron looked at this and said this did not signal a change in ownership, one that would allow that right of first refusal. They're successful in this. The reason this is such a big deal is this has been a very successful oil find. Right now, at least as of the first quarter, that Guyana field was averaging 631,000 barrels a day. This is a huge find if you consider that Exxon's overall total production on a daily basis is about 5 million barrels per day, and of course, 45% of that share of the 631,000 barrels a day is part of Exxon's overall 5 million barrels per day. This is much bigger news for Chevron than it would have been for Exxon. Exxon still maintains its 45% stake. It will now be partners with Chevron in the production. I asked Darren what that meant, and it's been a little awkward since they've been going back and forth in court over this. He says they have a working relationship with Chevron and lots of other partnerships, and that that partnership was just fine throughout all of this arbitration time. He said, frankly, they're good partners. He said this was never a Chevron thing. This was more about making sure we got the contracts in force the way they were intended. Again, this is a decision that's pretty big news for the market in the terms of that. It means that that Hess acquisition by Chevron can go through. I'm not looking at the screens right now, but I would assume that on this news, you're going to see Chevron shares trade higher because there was a lot of question about that acquisition. They probably would not have made a whole lot of sense if they didn't get this piece of it as well. So it's been a long journey for Chevron with the Hess deal. This clears the way for that. And, you know, this this will be pretty big news for the market just based on that. Yeah. Is there one thing we think we think they got it wrong? He said, as of the court, I asked what that would mean for any partnerships that they write going forward. He said they're still looking through all of this. They don't understand all of the details of it because, again, it just hit about 50 minutes ago. But he said, we'll make sure that anything we need to do to make provisions will prevail in the future. So they will be more clear about how they write those partnership deals.

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