Oil companies embroiled in arbitration over Guyana’s Stabroek Block top list of highest paid executives

Jul 12, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – A recent article by Houston Chronicle has placed the spotlight on American oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron, for leading the list of Houston’s 100 highest paid executives.

The agency reported that while Houston’s economy is diversifying, most of the region’s top-paid executives are connected to the energy sector, and in particular oil and gas.

Houston Chronicle reported Exxon, Chevron, Exxon, Exxon again. That’s how this year’s ranking of Houston’s 100 highest-paid executives begins, and it sets the tone for the rest of the list. Notably, both Exxon and Chevron have five executives on this year’s list.  Nearly two-thirds of the 100 executives in this ranking work in the energy sector.

Darren Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), leads the list, having earned a compensation package worth about US$44 million in 2024, according to data from S&P Capital IQ drawn from information filed with the securities and exchange commission. In second place is Michael Wirth, chairman and CEO of Chevron, whose overall compensation was pegged at nearly US$33 million.

Rounding out the top of the list were Neil Chapman and Jack Williams, both senior vice presidents at Exxon who each earned packages valued at about US$25.5 million last year.

Further Karen McKee, an Exxon vice president and president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions, was the seventh-highest paid executive in Houston as well as the only woman to rank in the top 10. Her compensation package in 2024 was valued at roughly US$23.5 million. Also, Kathryn Mikells, Exxon senior vice president and CFO, was the twelfth-highest paid executive in Houston, with a compensation package in 2024 valued at nearly US$19 million.

It was recently reported that an arbitration panel met a decision in the dispute involving oil majors ExxonMobil Corporation and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) over a US$53 billion deal that could grant Chevron access to Hess Corporation’s 30 per cent stake in Guyana’s prolific Stabroek Block. That decision has not been disclosed to date.

In October 2023, it was announced that Chevron will be acquiring Hess Corporation for some US$53 billion. The takeover would give Chevron access to Hess’ most valuable asset in Guyana. However, this led to ExxonMobil Corporation, the parent company for ExxonMobil Guyana Limited, the operator of the block filed for arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, arguing that it has a right of first refusal over Hess’ stake. In May 2025, the oil companies, through their lawyers faced-off before the three-member arbitration tribunal.

Woods told Reuters the company filed for arbitration because discussions were not happening with Chevron and Hess around the right of first refusal provision. “Those discussions needed to happen and hadn’t been happening,” Woods said in a Reuters article.

He said Exxon wanted to have its right of first refusal recognised before it could decide on its strategy for the Stabroek block. An Exxon executive has said the arbitration could take five to six months.

Meanwhile, Wirth had said Chevron had done extensive due diligence on the operating agreement between Exxon and Hess in Guyana and has extensive experience in those types of agreement around the world. Chevron is looking forward to affirming its understanding of the contract in the arbitration, he added.

The Stabroek Block located about 120 miles offshore Guyana, spans 6.6 million acres. Oil production offshore Guyana’s Stabroek Block, began in December 2019. Since then, production has grown to 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) from three sanctioned projects: Liza Phase 1, Liza Phase 2, and Payara. This output is set to increase with the imminent start-up of Yellowtail, the fourth development, later this year.

Exxon already has two other sanctioned projects under its belt, the Uaru and Whiptail. The company has already submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its seventh project, Hammerhead, with production targeted for 2029. The company has also filed an application for an eighth development named Longtail.

Notably, the deal governing the Stabroek Block extends favourable terms to the oil companies, providing unlimited tax waivers, uncapped interest rates and perhaps the lowest royalty rates known to the industry, at a meager two percent.

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• Chevron, Exxon, Guyana, Houston, oil, Stabroek Block

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