Chevron plans to spend $14 billion on oil and natural gas production in 2024

Chevron will allocate $14 billion for upstream investments in 2024, the company said in a budget update that saw the total capex planned for 2024 at between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion.

That would be an 11% increase on 2023 spending, Reuters noted in a report on the news.

Of the amount dedicated to upstream investment, Chevron plans to spend two-thirds on domestic projects. Of that sum, $6.5 billion will be spent on shale oil and gas, Chevron said. Almost all of that shale spending, or $5 billion, will go towards developments in the Permian.

At the same time, Chevron said it will allocate a quarter of its total U.S. investments for Gulf of Mexico projects, including the Anchor project scheduled to start commercial production in 2024. The Anchor project, which was greenlighted in 2019, is the first deepwater high-pressure oil development project in the region.

The company will also spend about $1.5 billion on offshore operations in Kazakhstan, with the sum constituting half of its affiliates budget for 2024.

Investments planned for the downstream segment are significantly smaller than the upstream total, at $1.5 billion, with 80% of this to be spent at home, Chevron also said.

“Included in the upstream and downstream budgets is approximately $2 billion in lower carbon capex to lower the carbon intensity of traditional operations and grow new energy business lines,” the company said, adding “Chevron’s Geismar renewable diesel expansion project is expected to start-up in 2024.”

In pursuit of its oil and gas expansion plans, Chevron in October took over Hess Corp. for $53 billion in stock. The acquisition has given the company access to the Stabroek Block in Guyana, where Hess and Exxon have tapped more than 11 billion barrels in oil reserves.

“We’re maintaining capital discipline in both traditional and new energies,” CEO Mike Wirth said. “These investments are expected to underpin durable free cash flow growth to support our objective of returning more cash to shareholders.”