Chevron CEO Talks 4Q 2025 Earnings and More

Thank you Jim. Good morning everybody.

Well, 2025 was a record year for us really in growth, execution, and shareholder returns. Adjusted free cash flow was up 35% even as oil prices were 15% lower. We set a production record worldwide. We set production records here in the US. We had our highest US refinery throughput since the 1990s. And we returned a record 27 billion in cash to our shareholders. As you mentioned, we increased our dividend this week, 4%, the 39th year in a row that we've increased the dividend and our shares yield about three times the S&P 500 in terms of the dividend yield. So, we've got good organic growth. We've consolidated Hess for a portion of last year, started up a big project in Kazakhstan, continued to grow in the Permian, grow in the Gulf of America. We've got a broad diversified portfolio that continues to deliver high margin, low-cost growth.

Well, we've certainly been focused on growing free cash flow. Some of that comes with volume. Some of it comes with margin expansion. And as I mentioned, even in a period of declining oil prices, which we've seen over the last 12 months, we've been able to grow our free cash flow, which supports those distributions to shareholders. We're taking cost out of our business. We're becoming more efficient. We're only scratching the surface on what we can do with AI. I think that's the next leg of both efficiency and asset productivity we'll see in our business. So we're working across the entire portfolio to drive that growth in free cash flow.

Well, we're certainly talking to all the hyperscalers about power supply. Absolutely. They're very interested in a project that we're developing in West Texas. We produce 3 billion cubic feet per day in the US and we've got seven of GE Vernova's largest turbines with secure delivery dates. We've got a site. We're into permitting, engineering, and we're in discussions with the biggest companies in the world, some of which you've already mentioned this morning, about a purpose-built energy park, not connected to the grid, so it doesn't drive up prices for consumers, but scaled alongside of their data center growth to support their ambitions. So, we're in contact with them. Later this year we would expect to announce a customer and more definitive details on this.

Absolutely. First power in 2027.