--- title: Big Oil's New Fossil Fuel Deals vs. Their Green Spending description: Chevron and Exxon spent more this year buying up fossil fuel assets than they plan to spend on lower carbon efforts for the next five years. canonical: https://time.com/6328441/chevron-exxon-fossil-fuel-acquisitions-vs-climate-efforts/ author: Aryn Baker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-25T18:31:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T16:35:22.707Z article:section: Climate og:title: How Chevron and Exxon's Latest Fossil Fuel Deals Compare To Their Green Spending og:description: Big Oil spent more this year buying fossil fuel assets than they'll spend on lower carbon efforts for the next five years. og:url: https://time.com/6328441/chevron-exxon-fossil-fuel-acquisitions-vs-climate-efforts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96c24d2342b1d278/698a41b5cabb1d2788e51e2e/GettyImages-1720085932.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Exxon To Buy Pioneer For $60 Billion To Dominate Shale Oil og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Chevron and Exxon's Latest Fossil Fuel Deals Compare To Their Green Spending twitter:description: Big Oil spent more this year buying fossil fuel assets than they'll spend on lower carbon efforts for the next five years. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96c24d2342b1d278/698a41b5cabb1d2788e51e2e/GettyImages-1720085932.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Chevron and Exxon's Latest Fossil Fuel Deals Compare To Their Green Spending by [Aryn Baker](https://time.com/author/aryn-baker/) ## Aryn Baker Oct 25, 2023 6:31 PM UTC  Pioneer Natural Resources equipment near Midland, Texas, Pioneer Natural Resources equipment near Midland, Texas,Michael Ciaglo/Bloomberg—Getty Images by [Aryn Baker](https://time.com/author/aryn-baker/) ## Aryn Baker Oct 25, 2023 6:31 PM UTC When the executive director of the International Energy Agency, [Fatih Birol](https://time.com/6284159/iea-fatih-birol-oil-gas-emission-targets), suggested in an [op-ed last month](https://www.ft.com/content/f6155d7b-2ef7-4f62-a08a-b640b7e87fca) that demand for fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal would peak before 2030, major oil producers [cried foul](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-18/alberta-premier-smith-joins-saudi-minister-in-iea-criticism), saying that their investments into carbon capture technologies and other climate efficient production techniques will encourage increased consumption with a cleaner footprint. Then they doubled down. The past two weeks have seen two of the biggest energy deals ever, with ExxonMobil’s [$59.5 billion purchase](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/business/economy/exxon-mobil-pioneer-natural-resources.html) of the shale driller Pioneer Natural Resources on Oct. 11, followed by Chevron’s Oct. 23 [acquisition](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/business/chevron-hess-acquisition.html) of rival producer Hess in an all-stock deal valued at $53 billion. But a closer look at both companies’ spending plans reveals just how much, or more accurately, how little they intend to invest in lower carbon initiatives compared to how much they spent on their latest shopping spree. Chevron spent five times more on its single Hess acquisition this year than it [budgeted](https://www.chevron.com/-/media/chevron/annual-report/2022/documents/2022-Annual-Report.pdf) for carbon reduction investments from 2021-2028, while Exxon spent more than triple its carbon reduction investments[ budget](https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/%5F74d009918ead0ec6acdd6bbaf27a8316/exxonmobil/db/2301/22049/annual%5Freport/2022-Annual-Report.pdf) for the next five years on its one giant carbon-spewing middle finger to the IEA and its peak-oil projections. Of course oil companies see Birol’s statement as a threat to investor confidence. But by the numbers alone, it’s clear that they aren’t hedging their bets on real carbon reductions either. **_A version of this story also appears in the_** **Climate is Everything** **_newsletter. To sign up,_** [**_click here_**](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletters/?newsletter%5Fname=climate&source=onsite)**_._** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6328441/chevron-exxon-fossil-fuel-acquisitions-vs-climate-efforts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6328441/chevron-exxon-fossil-fuel-acquisitions-vs-climate-efforts/"},"headline":"How Chevron and Exxon's Latest Fossil Fuel Deals Compare To Their Green Spending","datePublished":"2023-10-25T18:31:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:35:22.707Z","description":"Chevron and Exxon spent more this year buying up fossil fuel assets than they plan to spend on lower carbon efforts for the next five years.","url":"https://time.com/6328441/chevron-exxon-fossil-fuel-acquisitions-vs-climate-efforts/","keywords":["energy","climate change","healthscienceclimate","Climate Is Everything"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96c24d2342b1d278/698a41b5cabb1d2788e51e2e/GettyImages-1720085932.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aryn Baker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aryn-baker/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96c24d2342b1d278/698a41b5cabb1d2788e51e2e/GettyImages-1720085932.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Exxon To Buy Pioneer For $60 Billion To Dominate Shale Oil","caption":"Exxon To Buy Pioneer For $60 Billion To Dominate Shale Oil","creditText":"Michael Ciaglo/Bloomberg—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/energy/","name":"energy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6328441/chevron-exxon-fossil-fuel-acquisitions-vs-climate-efforts/","name":"How Chevron and Exxon's Latest Fossil Fuel Deals Compare To Their Green Spending"}}]}] ```