Chevron announces $19.8bn capital budget for 2017

Chevron Corporation announced a $19.8 billion capital and exploratory investment program for 2017, included in the 2017 program are $4.7 billion of planned affiliate expenditures.

“Our spending for 2017 targets shorter-cycle time, high-return investments and completing major projects under construction. In fact, over 70 per cent of our planned upstream investment program is expected to generate production within two years.

“This is the fourth consecutive year of spending reductions. Construction is nearing completion on several major capital projects, which are now online or expected to come online in the next few quarters. This combination of lower spending and growth in production revenues supports our overall objective of becoming cash balanced in 2017,” said Chairman and CEO John Watson.

The 2017 budget represents a reduction of 42 percent from 2015 outlays and is expected to be at least 15 percent lower than projected 2016 capital investments.

In the Upstream business, approximately $8.5 billion of planned capital spending relates to base-producing assets, including about $2.5 billion for shale and tight investments, the majority of which is slated for Permian Basin developments in Texas and New Mexico.

Another $7 billion of the planned upstream program is related to major capital projects currently underway, including approximately $2 billion toward the completion of the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Australia and $3 billion of affiliate expenditures associated with the Future Growth Project-Wellhead Pressure Management Project (FGP-WPMP) project at the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan.

Global exploration funding accounts for approximately $1 billion of the total upstream budget, and the remainder is primarily related to early stage projects supporting potential, future development opportunities.

Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies. Through its subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide, the company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemicals and additives; generates power and produces geothermal energy and develops and deploys technologies that enhance business value in every aspect of the company’s operations.