Chevron, America’s second-largest oil company, has announced it’s buying fellow US producer Hess for a cool $53B, the biggest deal in Chevron history.
Where’s the international intrigue?
- 🛢️ This is yet another big bet on oil, shrugging off the International Energy Agency’s recent forecasts that peak oil is on the horizon
- 🤝 It’s another sign the sector is consolidating, as more players struggle with higher interest rates and lower economies of scale, and
- 🇬🇾 It’s another big bet on Guyana (where Hess has a stake), with the South American country discovering 11 billion barrels of oil and gas in the past decade.
Intrigue’s take: Every past energy transition has been slow, uneven and contested. And we’ve generally seen more of an energy addition rather than transition: oil and gas overtook coal six decades ago, yet coal consumption has since tripled.
We say this not to claim how the world ought to be, but as a reminder of how it is. Speaking of which, there’s evidence we don’t have a lot of time.
Also worth noting:
- The IEA says about $2.8T will be invested in the global energy sector this year, with $1.7T going to clean tech and the remainder towards coal, oil and gas.
