Chevron could close Unocal deal by Aug.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chevron Corp. (CVX.N) is hurrying to complete its $16 billion acquisition of Unocal Corp. UCL.N as soon as August, a top Chevron executive said on Wednesday, even as a Chinese company decided to make a competing bid.
The companies had initially expected to close the deal by the end of the year, a Unocal spokesman said.
"We're doing everything we can to move this quickly," George Kirkland, Chevron's global head of exploration and production, said at the Reuters Energy Summit. "I think we could be closed in the August timeframe."
When the Unocal deal was struck in early April, Chevron had said it expected the companies to be fully integrated within six months following regulatory approval.
On the other side of the globe, CNOOC Ltd.'s board of directors met for several hours in Beijing on Wednesday night, and made a final decision to bid for Unocal, a person close to the process told Reuters.
CNOOC Ltd. (0883.HK)(CEO.N), China's largest offshore oil and gas producer, aspires to become a major regional liquefied natural gas producer. It made a last-minute decision earlier this year not to bid for Unocal in the face of opposition from some independent board directors.
Chevron's Kirkland declined to comment on a possible CNOOC bid, but said Chevron would stay focused on closing the deal.
"We have to focus on what we can do. We're moving our piece forward," Kirkland said. "We have an agreement, and I don't know how the other pieces will, what else, will play out."
Chevron earlier this month received regulatory approval from U.S. antitrust authorities after resolving charges over patents for reformulated gasoline. The deal awaits the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the blessing of Unocal shareholders.
"In our internal processes on selecting people, and organizational design and all that, we're moving all of that like we would in any merger or acquisition, we're moving that as quickly as we can," Kirkland said.
Chevron, the No. 5 oil company in the world, agreed to buy California rival Unocal for about $16.4 billion in April after fighting off Italian oil group Eni (ENI.MI), CNOOC and other rumored suitors. The deal promises to give it prized assets in Asia and expand its reach in the Gulf of Mexico.
Shares of Unocal, among the most actively traded stocks on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, closed up 1 cent at $64.86 a share. Chevron shares were down 51 cents, or about 0.9 percent, to $58.27 a share. (Additional Reporting by Charlie Zhu in Singapore)
