Texaco and Chevron.

The Bermuda implications of the merger announced yesterday are not fully known by local executives, but the move should lead to a merger of the two local companies involved.

Bermuda-based Heddington Insurance is a subsidiary of Texaco that insures all the risk of the parent company while Bermuda-based Chevron International Ltd.

is the insurance and finance side of parent company Chevron Corporation which is based in San Fransisco.

Samantha Froud, senior vice president of corporate at Heddington Insurance, said yesterday that there were no details on how the merger might impact their operations.

"It is too early for that,'' she said. "We still will have to wait for the merger to recieve Federal Trade Commission approval and for shareholder approval.'' Gary Pitman, president of Chevron International Ltd., echoed Ms Stroud's comments but said that the two local companies would most likely have to join as well.

"Obviously we will be getting together,'' he said. "We have 14 staff here and Heddington have about 30 but it depends on the philosphy of the merged companies which way they decide to go.'' Mr. Pitman said early indications are that the Bermuda businesses should come together within the next six months. He also said he did not feel it likely to happen in less than a year.

"They still have to get FTC (Federal Trade Commission) approval and you never know what could happen in that time,'' he said.

Chevron Corp. announced yesterday that aggreement had been reached with the board of Texaco Inc to buy it for about $33 billion in stock.

The deal includes Chevron accept close to $7 billion of Texaco debt but will make the new oil company, the fourth largest in the world with 11.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) reserves and daily production of 2.7 million boe.