NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 10, 2009-- Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) is well positioned to deal with difficult market conditions given its strong balance sheet, numerous new growth projects coming onstream and a disciplined approach to cost management, executives said today at the company’s annual meeting with financial analysts in New York.

“We are continuing to execute our key strategies,” Dave O’Reilly, chairman and CEO, told the meeting. “We’re moving legacy projects to development, we’re moving resources to reserves, and we’re continuing to deliver our industry-leading exploration program. In the downstream, we’re continuing our program to improve reliability and feedstock flexibility, and we are sharply focused on reducing costs.”

O’Reilly said the company is well positioned for these challenging market conditions because of its strong balance sheet. He reaffirmed the company’s long-held strategies and emphasized the advantages the company earned through consistent execution.

“For the longer term, we believe global energy demand will rise as economic growth resumes. We have more exposure to some of the top growth regions in the world,” O’Reilly explained. “Shorter term, our portfolio is relatively less exposed to sectors that are most sensitive to an economic downturn.”

George Kirkland, executive vice president of Upstream and Gas, outlined the strong 2008 performance of the upstream and natural gas business, with record earnings, nine major capital projects completed and strong competitive performance in the key areas of earnings per barrel, cost structure and return on capital employed.

Kirkland also provided details on how the industry-leading queue of Chevron’s major capital projects will deliver significant growth and provide flexibility in the current economic environment. “Over the next two years, we expect new project startups and continued ramp-ups to contribute production of 650,000 barrels per day,” he said. “In addition, the depth of our portfolio provides us with the flexibility to optimize project timing to take advantage of lower expected capital costs.”

In discussing future growth, Kirkland focused on Chevron’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolio, particularly Gorgon and Wheatstone in Australia, as well as the crude oil opportunities in the Lower Tertiary trend in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. “We’ve made substantial progress on both Gorgon and Wheatstone in the past 12 months. We expect Gorgon to be sanctioned during the second half of 2009, and Wheatstone is advancing toward front-end engineering and design later this year,” Kirkland said.

Kirkland also revealed new details about development plans for Chevron’s high profile Jack and St. Malo discoveries in the Lower Tertiary trend. He said the company has begun front-end engineering and design for a production facility that will have a capacity of between 120,000 and 150,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day. The facility will co-develop the Jack Field and the nearby St. Malo Field, which have combined recoverable resources in excess of 500 million barrels.

Mike Wirth, executive vice president of Global Downstream, outlined development activities at four key refineries to improve reliability and profitability. He provided additional details about ongoing efforts to streamline the company’s refined products marketing.

“We’re investing to further strengthen our superior refining assets,” Wirth said. “We are sharply focused on reducing costs and absolutely committed to sustaining our utilization improvements.”

The refinery investments include reliability, feedstock flexibility, yield improvement and energy efficiency projects at the company’s refineries in California, Mississippi and South Korea. On the marketing side of the business, Wirth said the company will continue to streamline its lubricant product line and exit certain retail markets to reduce costs and improve returns.

Pat Yarrington, chief financial officer, outlined the company’s financial priorities. “We plan to sustain and grow our dividend and to maintain our financial strength and flexibility throughout the commodity price cycle,” she said. She emphasized the company’s strong track record of balancing current performance with future earnings growth.

Presentations delivered by O’Reilly, Kirkland, Wirth and Yarrington are available on Chevron.com on the investor page.

Chevron Corporation is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company’s success is driven by the ingenuity and commitment of approximately 62,000 employees who operate across the energy spectrum. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and other energy products; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels and other renewables. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.

Cautionary Statement Relevant to Forward-Looking Information for the Purpose of “Safe Harbor” Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

This press release of Chevron Corporation contains forward-looking statements relating to Chevron’s operations that are based on management’s current expectations, estimates and projections about the petroleum, chemicals and other energy-related industries. Words such as “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “targets,” “projects,” “believes,” “seeks,” “schedules,” “estimates,” “budgets” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond the company’s control and are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. The reader should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Unless legally required, Chevron undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are crude oil and natural gas prices; refining, marketing and chemical margins; actions of competitors or regulators; timing of exploration expenses; timing of crude oil liftings; the competitiveness of alternate-energy sources or product substitutes; technological developments; the results of operations and financial condition of equity affiliates; the inability or failure of the company’s joint-venture partners to fund their share of operations and development activities; the potential failure to achieve expected net production from existing and future crude oil and natural gas development projects; potential delays in the development, construction or startup of planned projects; the potential disruption or interruption of the company’s net production or manufacturing facilities or delivery/transportation networks due to war, accidents, political events, civil unrest, severe weather or crude oil production quotas that might be imposed by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries); the potential liability for remedial actions or assessments under existing or future environmental regulations and litigation; significant investment or product changes under existing or future environmental statutes, regulations and litigation; the potential liability resulting from pending or future litigation; the company’s acquisition or disposition of assets; gains and losses from asset dispositions or impairments; government-mandated sales, divestitures, recapitalizations, industry-specific taxes, changes in fiscal terms or restrictions on scope of company operations; foreign currency movements compared with the U.S. dollar; the effects of changed accounting rules under generally accepted accounting principles promulgated by rule-setting bodies; and the factors set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” on pages 30 and 31 of the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition, such statements could be affected by general domestic and international economic and political conditions. Unpredictable or unknown factors not discussed in this press release could also have material adverse effects on forward-looking statements.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules permit oil and gas companies to disclose only proved reserves in their filings with the SEC. Certain terms, such as “resources,” “oil in place,” “recoverable natural gas resources,” “oil-equivalent resources,” “potentially recoverable volumes,” “recoverable reserves,” and “recoverable resources,” among others, may be used in this press release or other public disclosures that are not permitted to be used in filings with the SEC.

Source: Chevron Corporation

Chevron Corporation
Lloyd Avram, 925-413-5985