Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX, ETR:CHV) chief executive Michael Wirth has said the oil major is on course to grow free cash flow by as much as US$8 billion and slash billions in costs come next year.
Free cash flow was set to climb by US$6 billion to US$8 billion, he told Goldman Sachs' Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference in Miami on Wednesday.
Expenses were seen being reduced by “a couple billion dollars” in the meantime, Wirth said.
Chevron reported US$19.78 billion in free cash flow for 2023, while the figure amounted to US$22.8 billion over the first nine months of 2024.
New and expanded Kazakhstan, US shale and Gulf of Mexico offshore production was set to boost figures, he signalled.
Output at the latter was forecast to hit 300,000 barrels a day in 2024, against 200,000 last year, as Kazakhstan-based production climbed to 270,000 later in the year.
On gas, Wirth said oversupply could hit in the latter half of the decade but that increasing power demand would likely need to be met before nuclear plants came online.
“Nuclear is probably a decade away from most of the people I talk to that are working on [it],” he said, “the good news is America is blessed with an abundance of natural gas”.
Wirth also updated that Chevron’s US$53 billion takeover of Hess Corp was expected to be closed later this year, after being stalled by its Guyana oil production joint venture partners Exxon Mobil and CNOOC.
Shares ticked up 0.1% to US$149.79 on Wednesday.