The Zhitong Finance App learned that after announcing the latest results, the CEO of US oil and gas giant Chevron (CVX.US) is expected to obtain official approval from the US antitrust department for his planned 53 billion US dollar acquisition of the oil and gas company HES.US (HES.US) within the next few weeks. Following the announcement of earnings on Friday, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth (Mike Wirth) said in an interview with the media that the US oil giant is expected to be approved by the HSR antitrust law soon.

Some media quoted an exclusive telephone interview as saying, “Vos revealed in the interview that they expect approval from the US Federal Trade Commission to arrive within a few weeks.”

Earlier, Chevron and Hess executives said that in December of last year, they received a request from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to disclose more information about the $53 billion takeover deal plan.

As early as November of last year, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether US oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil (Exxon Mobil)'s acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources and plans with Chevron to acquire Hess violated US antitrust laws.

According to information, in March of this year, ExxonMobil, Chevron's biggest competitor in the US, objected to whether Chevron had the right to absorb 30% of Hess's shares in a large-scale oil project operated by ExxonMobil in Guyana. As a result, this deal faced major obstacles.

It can be said that disputes between any of the world's largest oil companies rarely take place in an open format. More rarely, a project linked to a dispute could end up costing $53 billion. But the wealth of petroleum resources in Guyana's coastal waters is so valuable that US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil is willing to fight the complicated legal issues of a contract signed 10 years ago, so that this wealth is mainly owned by itself and away from Chevron, one of its biggest rivals.

ExxonMobil recently publicly stated that it is considering exercising the right to acquire the shares of the oil and gas company Hess in a large-scale offshore oil development project in Guyana, and this is the core asset that attracted Chevron to acquire Hess. ExxonMobil discovered this large oil field in Guyana in 2015 and owns up to 45% of the project.

The focus of the current multi-party dispute is a private contract between Exxon and Hess to manage the Stabroek block project in Guyana. It includes a “preferential right to purchase” clause, which means that if a party wants to sell its shares, it must first make them available to other important players.

Chevron CEO Voss called the Guyana project “the industry's most attractive and longest-lived growing oil and gas asset.” This will also help close the valuation gap between Chevron and ExxonMobil, which operates the Guyana Stabroek block and owns 45% of the shares. The stakes for what can be called the “battle of the century” between the two major US oil and gas giants couldn't be higher, because it could completely disrupt Chevron's massive $53 billion acquisition of US-based oil and gas producer Hess.

While Voss is still hoping to complete the acquisition of Hess, he is trying to prove to investors that Chevron itself has enough endogenous growth potential. The company's goal this year is to achieve a 4% to 7% increase in oil production without the acquisition of Hess, mainly from the Permian Basin, a new offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, and PDC Energy, which was acquired by Chevron in August.

Voss previously said that oil production in the Permian Basin will decline in the first half of this year and then grow strongly in the second half of the year, with an annual growth rate of about 10% for the entire region. However, from a long-term perspective, Chevron's growth prospects face greater challenges. A major expansion project in Kazakhstan is over budget and behind schedule, and shale oil production outside the Permian region is expected to level off.