Chevron’s Permian production tops 1 MMboe/d, executives shift focus to cash flow

Chevron Corp.’s production in the Permian basin topped 1 MMboe/d for the first time during the second quarter, hitting a target executives set for themselves more than 5 years ago. But the company is starting to cut outlays and moderate its growth in the key field and is focusing on taking home more cash.

“At some point, growth is less the objective than free cash flow,” chief executive officer Mike Wirth told analysts and investors on an Aug. 1 conference call when asked about Chevron’s broader shale portfolio. “And we’re approaching that point.”

The Permian basin—where Chevron produces 2.5 times the barrels it does in the Denver-Julesburg basin and five times as many as in the Bakken—is in the lead when it comes to the focus on cash flow. Wirth said 2025 capital spending in the Permian basin will be “in the lower end” of the company’s guidance of $4.5-5 billion. That figure, he added, will drop in 2026 as the company’s teams look to merely sustain production.

As have many of their peers, Chevron leaders have focused on efficiency gains in recent quarters. The operator's total capex across the globe in first-half 2025 was down $500 million to about $7.6 billion but its net production totaled nearly 3.4 MMboe/d, an increase of a little more than 3% from last year’s corresponding quarter. In the United States, total production climbed to nearly 1.7 MMboe/d from 1.57 MMboe/d in the prior-year period. Executives said output rose in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Permian basin while production in the Rockies slipped.