“So we think we're still a few years away from returning to mid-cycle.”

In context

“Good morning, Mike. Mike Wirth: Good morning, Steve. Stephen Richardson: I was wondering if you could give us your -- curious on your recent thoughts on CPChem, obviously, in the middle of some pretty significant investments in that business through what looks to be a trough, at least in the olefins side of the business. But maybe your current thoughts on the business and then also, how are you thinking about potentially maybe owning more of it over time and how that fits into your current thoughts? Mike Wirth: Sure. Thanks, Steve. Well, first of all, I'll say we like the longer-term fundamentals of the Chemicals business. We've been in a tough part of the cycle here recently as we've seen some capacity additions into the market. So it's going to take time for the market to absorb those. So we think we're still a few years away from returning to mid-cycle. But CPChem has been a great business for us, and we've got 25 years of history roughly now. And they've been a good operator. They've been a good project executor. It's a portfolio that's significantly advantaged due to their feedstock position, which is primarily ethane in the U.S. Gulf Coast and the Middle East. They've had a very good low-cost operator. And we've got a couple of growth projects underway, one in Qatar, one in Texas, on track to come online end of 2026, early 2027-ish. And so it's been a very successful partnership for us over more than two decades. Getting a lot share of a business that you like is always something that you would take a look at. We have advised the partner in CPChem that we'd be interested in acquiring the other half at a reasonable value for both parti”