What does all this mean? First Exxon makes a huge acquisition and now Chevron. Are the big oil companies diversifying and acquiring in anticipation of further regulation that will curtail oil and other fossil fuel production?

The U.S. energy company said buying Hess would upgrade and diversify its portfolio, marking Chevron’s entrance into an Exxon-led partnership overseeing a generational oil find in Guyana, while picking up additional U.S. shale assets largely in North Dakota. Chevron also highlighted the attraction of Hess’s assets in the Gulf of Mexico and its natural-gas business in Southeast Asia.

The transaction, less than two weeks after Exxon’s acquisition of Pioneer, shows America’s second-largest oil company is similarly tying its future to a bet that the world will continue to have an appetite for oil for decades, even as many countries are seeking to cut emissions and transition toward green energy.

The major oil companies’ doubling down on fossil fuels follows a recent prediction by the International Energy Agency that fossil fuel demand globally would reach its zenith this decade.

Chevron to Buy Hess for $53 Billion – WSJ (no paywall)