While negotiations continue at COP28 in Dubai to negotiate the contours of a possible exit from fossil fuels, oil companies continue to invest in hydrocarbons. After two huge buyouts led by Exxon Mobil and Chevron in October, another American company has just closed a $12 billion acquisition.
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It is the very polluting shale oil and gas from Texas and New Mexico that are particularly coveted by American companies in the sector. The company Occidental Petroleum has thus completed the purchase for nearly 12 billion dollars of its compatriot Crown Rock, which exploits deposits in this region of the southern United States.
This acquisition is reminiscent of the mega-acquisitions made by Chevron and Exxon Mobil in October, which also bought competitors for 50 and 60 billion dollars each.
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The rise in oil prices, linked to the war in Ukraine, has filled the portfolios of the giants of the sector. And even if the IPCC (the UN climate experts), but also the International Energy Agency, assure that we must not exploit new fossil energy deposits, to hope to limit to a degree and a half global warming, this does not seem to modify the investment plans of oil companies. These mega acquisitions show on the contrary that they have confidence in the future, despite the discussions underway at COP28 at the moment.