Chevron is well positioned to deal with difficult market conditions executives said at the company’s annual meeting with financial analysts in New York this week.
The management team said that the company’s strong balance sheet and numerous new growth projects coming onstream were strong signs, and a disciplined approach to cost management would see them through the current squeeze.
“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.”
“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 these business sectors, with record earnings, nine major capital projects completed and strong competitive performance in the key areas of earnings per barrel.
“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.”
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