backKing & Spalding advised Chevron in relation to a dispute arising from Chevron’s US$53 billion merger with Hess Corporation, announced in October 2023. Chevron obtained a favorable outcome, allowing for the closure of the Chevron-Hess merger.
Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. owns a 30% interest in the Stabroek Block, a prized oil field off the coast of Guyana. In March 2024, subsidiaries of ExxonMobil Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. initiated an ICC arbitration against Hess Guyana, contending that contractual pre-emption rights were implicated by the Chevron-Hess merger. On July 18, 2025, ExxonMobil announced that it had lost the arbitration and welcomed Chevron into the Stabroek venture. That same day, Chevron closed the merger.
As the Wall Street Journal put it, Hess’s win “resolves an often tense and long-running dispute between the two largest descendants of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly over one of the world's most coveted oil projects.” The confidential arbitration, which had been pending for over 20 months, was the final obstacle to the Chevron-Hess merger.
The merger and related proceedings have been the subject of intense public scrutiny, extensively covered in the financial press,1For example, https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/chevron-moves-forward-with-megadeal-for-hess-after-winning-exxon-arbitration-17347067; https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/arbitrators-exxon-hess-dispute-over-chevron-deal-have-reached-decision-sources-2025-07-04/; https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/court-hearing-exxons-dispute-over-chevron-hess-deal-set-may-26-sources-say-2025-05-01/; https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-wants-extract-its-value-hess-guyana-assets-ceo-says-2024-12-11/; https://www.ft.com/content/780c49a1-67f9-4b65-a6d6-1d4b1bc77595 and https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-exxon-dispute-over-hess-stake-guyana-oil-block-2024-02-26/ closely followed by investors and analysts, and even giving rise to billions of dollars in hedge fund positions.2See https://news.bloomberglaw.com/mergers-and-acquisitions/merger-arbs-wager-10-billion-on-chevron-hess-beating-exxon-case and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-18/hedge-funds-reap-windfall-as-10-billion-hess-deal-bet-pays-off
The King & Spalding team was led by Doak Bishop and John Savage. Other team members included Charles Correll, Elizabeth Silbert, Kabir Bhalla, Nate Bilhartz, Jia Lin Hoe, Daniela Bravo, Sophia Harms, and Erin Vandzura.