USA: Chevron Highlights 2010 Performance at Annual Meeting of Stockholders

Chevron Corporation Wednesday highlighted the company’s 2010 performance and discussed the company’s future growth at the 2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

“A combination of safe, reliable operations and superior execution helped make 2010 an outstanding year both operationally and financially,” said John Watson, chairman and CEO. “As we look ahead to the next decade, we remain committed to safety and delivering profitable growth.”

Watson discussed Chevron’s strong 2010 financial and operational performance, which produced earnings of $19 billion. The company increased the quarterly dividend by 5.9 percent in 2010, marking 23 consecutive years of annual dividend increases. During this period, dividends grew at an average annual rate of 7 percent. Chevron announced another quarterly dividend increase in April 2011. Watson said that Chevron led its peers in total stockholder return over the past five years, besting the S&P 500 by more than 14 percentage points. The company maintained its leading position in total stockholder return through the first quarter of 2011.

Watson reinforced Chevron’s long-standing commitment to safe, reliable operations. Chevron is an industry leader in safety and in 2010 achieved the best safety performance in the company’s history. He also discussed the partnerships Chevron has formed to address health, education and economic development issues in the communities where the company operates. Over the past four years, Chevron’s social investments around the world have more than doubled.

George Kirkland, Chevron vice chairman and executive vice president for Global Upstream and Gas, discussed Chevron’s world-class queue of projects to meet the world’s future energy needs. Chevron plans on investing $26 billion in 2011, with 87 percent of that amount expected to fund upstream activities.

Kirkland noted that since late 2009, Chevron has added 14 million acres to its portfolio, including the acquisition of Atlas Energy in the northeast United States, and deepwater opportunities in Liberia and China. Kirkland also discussed Chevron’s queue of major capital projects, including Gorgon and Wheatstone in Australia. Over the next three years, 25 projects with a Chevron share of more than $250 million each are scheduled to start production, nine of which have a net Chevron share that exceeds $1 billion. Chevron has four major capital projects planned to start up in 2011. Additionally, over the next three years, the company expects to make final investment decisions on 13 more projects, each with a Chevron share in excess of $1 billion. Construction on the Gorgon project is nearly 25 percent complete, with startup expected in 2014, and Chevron remains on schedule to reach a final investment decision this year on the Wheatstone project, with startup planned for 2016.

Kirkland also discussed Chevron’s Downstream and Chemicals business, which delivered improved earnings and competitive performance in 2010. After completing a restructuring, Downstream and Chemicals has a lower cost structure and a portfolio focused on core markets, including North America and Asia. Last year, Chevron had three key downstream project startups at plants in South Korea, in Qatar, and in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Kirkland also discussed Chevron’s investments in projects that improve energy efficiency, flexibility and product diversity, including the 25,000-barrel-per-day base-oil plant in Pascagoula. When complete in 2013, Chevron will be one of the world’s leading suppliers of premium base oil. In addition, Chevron plans to deliver $700 million in improvements to its refinery system by the end of 2012, through a combination of improved efficiency, and controllable margin and yield improvement.

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Source: Chevron, May 26, 2011;