Chevron has announced its plans to sell its natural gas business in Canada’s Duvernay Shale as part of its efforts to streamline global operations following several acquisitions.
Chevron’s assets in Canada, which currently produce 40,000 barrels of oil and gas per day from 235,000 acres in central Alberta, could be sold for up to $900 million, according to Energy Advisors Group, a Houston-based advisory firm that estimates the potential value of the assets.
Chevron plans to divest between $10 billion and $15 billion in assets by 2028, following its recent deals with companies such as Hess Corp., PDC Energy, and Noble Energy. These deals have significantly increased the company’s oil and gas output.
The company is proud of its performance in the Duvernay field and holds a strong position in the area. The business has both current production and potential growth opportunities, making it an attractive prospect for other companies with complementary portfolios, according to Reuters.
Notably, the company’s other operations in Canada will not be affected by this decision.
Chevron plans to focus more than 75% of its upstream capital expenditures on various regions including US shale basins, the Gulf of Mexico, the Eastern Mediterranean, Guyana, Australia, and Kazakhstan. This decision followed the company’s announcement of a deal with Hess, which is pending regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second half of the year.
Moreover, Chevron also plans to sell high return assets in order to diversify its portfolio across different asset types and geographies, enabling the company to achieve high cash margins and reduce its carbon intensity production.
According to Brian Lidsky, director of Energy Advisors Group, the properties involved in the Hess deal could be worth $900 million, based on recent acquisitions of Duvernay properties by other companies such as Crescent Point.
Chevron first announced its plans to develop the East Kaybob region of the Duvernay play in Alberta in 2017, after three years of appraising the area. By 2022, 243 wells in the field had been tied into production facilities.
In 2021, Chevron shelved plans to build a major liquefied natural gas project exporting up to 10 million tons per year (mtpa) from Kitimat on Canada’s west coast.
Despite this, the Duvernay remains one of Canada’s top shale plays, with other companies like Crescent Point and PetroChina’s Canadian unit also having positions in the region. Last month, Athabasca Oil and Cenovus Energy formed a joint venture to accelerate their activity in the play.
The Duvernay has seen a surge in licensing activity and productivity improvements, with costs decreasing from as high as C$20 million per well a decade ago to C$10 million-C$15 million today, according to analysts at brokerage Eight Capital.
They noted that the Duvernay will become a key focus for the industry in 2024, as operators have done enough drilling to understand how to optimize the technology.
