Can Chevron Win Back Wall Street in 2025?
If CEO Mike Wirth is to be believed, the oil giant is on track to regain its mojo. But the challenges aren’t small.
Moving house.
Source: Bloomberg
Mike Wirth became the king of Big Oil on Oct. 7, 2020. That was the day the chief executive officer of Chevron Corp. elbowed out archival Exxon Mobil Corp. to become America’s largest oil corporation by market value. It was the zenith of a honeymoon between Wall Street and Wirth.
Fast forward five years, and all seems to have gone the wrong way. The mojo is certainly gone. Exxon is not only again the largest US oil company, but its market value nearly doubles its competitor. Worse, Exxon has entangled Chevron in a long arbitration battle that could derail a make-or-break $60-billion-plus deal. Wirth, long admired, is now questioned. Rivals whisper his job may be on the line.
The 64-year-old American chemical engineer is on a charm offensive to prove naysayers wrong. “The portfolio is stronger than it’s been,” he tells me in an hour-long interview. “This is the comeback.”