Chevron and Exxon discussed merger last year: reports

The CEOs of Chevron and ExxonMobil discussed the possibility of merging the two companies last year, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing unnamed people familiar with the talks.

The paper reported that Chevron CEO Michael Wirth and Exxon CEO Darren Woods spoke about the prospect after the Covid-19 pandemic began to negatively impact oil prices.

The talks are not ongoing and were described as preliminary, according to the Journal. Representatives of the two companies declined to comment. The talks were later reported by Reuters.

A Chevron and Exxon merger would be one of the largest in history and would likely face antitrust investigations by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department. Both companies descend from John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, which was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 1911.

Chevron’s market cap is $ 164 billion and Exxon’s is $ 189 billion, meaning the combined company would be worth more than $ 350 billion. The combined company would be the world’s second largest oil and gas company, after Saudi Aramco.

Oil prices have recovered much of their losses since the March crater, although they have remained somewhat low due to a slower-than-expected vaccine rollout and concerns about new coronavirus variants.

– CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.