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Chevron to sell $6.5 billion in oil sands, shale assets to Canadian Natural Resources
(WO) - The deal relates to Chevron’s 20% interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project and a 70% holding in the Duvernay shale, both in the province of Alberta, according to a statement from the company on Monday. The all-cash transaction has an effective date of Sept. 1 and is expected to close during the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.
The asset sale comes as Chevron focuses its growth plans increasingly in other parts of the world, notably the Permian basin in the U.S. and the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan, where a $48.5 billion expansion project is nearing completion.
Chevron is also in the process of acquiring Hess Corp. for $53 billion, a deal that would give it a stake in a massive offshore oil field in the South American country of Guyana, one of the world’s exploration hot-spots.
Chevron shares climbed as much as 1.3% before the start of regular trading in New York. It’s the latest big oil producer to divest a stake in Canadian oil-sands operations.
BP Plc, Shell Plc, ConocoPhillips, Equinor ASA and Devon Energy Corp. have all sold holdings in the mines and well sites of Alberta to local companies in recent years. That’s concentrated control of the oil sands in the hands of Canadian producers such as Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus and Suncor Energy Inc.
Oil sands are among the most damaging energy assets to climate change. Crude from the basin must be dug from mines or forced from wells injected with steam, making them some of the highest carbon-emitting grades of oil in the world.
Canada’s oil sands have been in production for decades, but the industry is undergoing a significant change since completing the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which opened Asian markets for the country’s crude.
Previously, the Canadian oil industry was dependent on US-bound pipelines and American refiners, resulting in deeper discounts for its crude and leaving it vulnerable to price shocks. From June to mid-September, the pipeline expansion had allowed the shipment of 28 MMbbl of crude to the country’s west coast, almost two-thirds of which headed to China, India, South Korea and Brunei.
The Duvernay shale formation is in southwest Alberta and a rich producer of condensate, light oil and gas. Chevron has been one of the largest drillers in the region. Canadian Natural Resource expects its production from the assets will average the equivalent of about 60,000 bopd in 2025, with about 179 MMcfd of natural gas and 30,000 bpd of liquids, the company said in a statement.
Canadian Natural Resources is financing the deal with a $4 billion term loan from The Bank of Nova Scotia and the Royal Bank of Canada. Canadian Natural Resources also announced it would increase its quarterly dividend by 7%.
Monday, October 7, 2024
Mexican mayor ‘decapitated by drug gangs’ six days into job
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexican-mayor-decapitated-drug-gangs-144315752.html
The mayor of a Mexican city plagued by gang violence has been murdered less than a week after taking office.
Photos circulating online showed what appeared to be the severed head of Alejandro Arcos on top of a pick-up truck and the rest of his body inside a car in the Villas del Roble neighbourhood in the east of Chilpancingo.
Mr Arcos was sworn in as the mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero province, last Monday. His death was confirmed by the authorities late on Sunday.
Local media reported that he had been decapitated, but state prosecutors offered no details when confirming his death.
The death provoked unease across Chilpancingo, which is no stranger to political violence, with residents choosing not to leave their homes after 9pm and schools suspending classes.
Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, called on the federal authorities to take charge of the investigation given Guerrero’s “ungovernability”.
Mr Moreno also revealed that Mr Arcos’s murder came just three days after the shooting of Francisco Tapia, the city government’s new secretary.
“They had been in office less than a week,” Mr Moreno said. “They were young and honest public servants who were seeking progress for their community.”
Chilpancingo has been home to violent turf battles between the Ardillos and the Tlacos, local drug gangs, for years.
The city is so violent that the Ardillos gang once organised a demonstration, hijacked an armoured government car and took 10 police officers hostage after its leaders were arrested for drugs and weapons possession.
Mr Arcos’s social media posts reveal that he had spent his first few days in office overseeing disaster relief after Hurricane John caused severe flooding in Acapulco, the beach resort, and its surrounding towns.
He had also spent time meeting relief workers and residents in the hours before his death, according to photos on his Facebook account.
In addition to the murders of Mr Tapia and Mr Arcos, at least six candidates running for public office were killed in Guerrero in the run-up to the June elections.
During the election campaign, Mr Arcos’s team accused his opponents of waging a “dirty war” against him by linking him to the Ardillos gang on flyers distributed to thousands of residents.
Mr Arcos won the election – his third attempt – by around 1,000 votes on June 2, the same day Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as Mexico’s first female president.
In the months leading up to the country’s general election, at least 37 candidates were killed, while dozens more dropped out after receiving death threats. Ms Sheinbaum has made “pacifying the country” one of her primary aims while in office.
A strategy presentation, seen by the Wall Street Journal, showed proposals to slash killings in the country’s 10 deadliest cities, including Acapulco.
“We are developing a programme for the municipalities that at this moment have the largest number of homicides,” Ms Sheinbaum said shortly after taking office on Oct 1.
Mr Arcos is the third mayor to be murdered in Guerrero this year, after the deaths of Copala’s Salvador Villalva Flores and Malinaltepec’s Acasio Flores Guerrero.