Chevron and Exxon discussed the merger last year: reports

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

The newspaper reported that Chevron CEO Michael Wirth and Exxon CEO Darren Woods talked about the outlook after the Covid-19 pandemic began to have a negative impact on oil prices.

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

A merger between Chevron and Exxon would be among the largest in history and would likely face antitrust scrutiny from President Joe Biden’s Justice Department. Both companies come from Standard Oil in John D. Rockefeller, which was separated from the Supreme Court in 1911.

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

Oil prices recovered much of their losses from the March crater, although they remained somewhat depressed amid the launch of a slower-than-expected vaccine and concerns about new variants of coronavirus.

– CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.