Chevron was caught off guard when ExxonMobil suddenly ended talks over disputed drilling rights in Guyana and filed for international arbitration instead.
"We were surprised when they — a couple of weeks ago — abruptly ended those discussions and publicly announced they had filed for arbitration," chief executive officer Mike Wirth said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday.
Up until that point, Chevron had sought to engage the partners in the offshore Stabroek block — the biggest discovery of the past decade — in a "constructive way," Wirth said.
A dispute over rights to the discovery has thrown Chevron's proposed $53bn takeover of US independent Hess into jeopardy. ExxonMobil is the operator of the Stabroek block with a 45pc stake, while Hess has 30pc and Chinese state-controlled CNOOC has a 25pc interest.
While ExxonMobil maintains it has the right of first refusal over Hess' stake in Guyana, both Chevron and Hess have countered that such rights do not apply in relation to their merger.
Wirth said he looked forward to Chevron's position being "affirmed" when the arbitration case is heard in Paris.
