Whirling Dervishes Aren’t Always Limited to Tornado Alley

Reese Energy Consulting is Marked Safe from yesterday’s Okla., tornado outbreak that whipped up so much wind energy in six hours that N.Y’s, offshore wind farms began crying, “No fair!” Meanwhile, whirling dervishes in the news sphere are spawning all around.

REC today is following a mixed bag of news nuggets that always puts the wind in our sails. We start with this: What if you bought the most amazing Lamborghini in the world but weren’t allowed to drive it for more than a year and a half? That’s what Chevron’s dealing with following its October acquisition of Hess and a conflict with ExxonMobil over one of the world’s largest oil plays. Chevron now reports a conclusion may not be reached until sometime in 2025.

On to the latest moves by producers adjusting strategies and bottom lines. Denver-based Civitas, one of the three largest DJ operators to include Chevron and OXY, has lip-sealed its mission to sell $300 million in assets there following the company’s parachute into the Permian last year with $7 billion in acquisitions. Civitas’ largest DJ buyer at $215 million—Dallas-based IOG Resources—will pick up working and royalty interests on assets operated by Oxy and Chevron.

And speaking of Oxy, which shelled out $12 billion last year for Permian player CrownRock, the time is at hand to slow the Tilt-a-Whirl on its debt, now standing at $18.5 billion. The company reports it’s exploring the sale of some Delaware assets which could potentially fetch $1 billion. But any quick sale might not be as quick as hoped. The FTC is nose-deep into last year’s bigger acquisitions (read Exxon-Pioneer), postponing Oxy’s-CrownRock closing date until the latter half of the year, along with any asset sales of up to $6 billion.