Diversify, consolidate or die: Energy transition poses stark choices to mid-sized oil companies

Noble Energy realised the independent E&P business model was failing long before Covid-19. Merging with Chevron buys investors some time, but is no silver bullet.

US oil supermajor Chevron’s headline-grabbing USD 13 billion deal to acquire independent outfit Noble Energy was hailed in some quarters as proof that Big Oil is far from dead and buried, no matter what the fossil fuel divest movement might say.

Battered and bruised, the supermajors still have a lot of life left in them. Armed with enviable credit rating…