Chevron executives see 2025 production growth nearing 8%

Executives of Chevron Corp., Houston, expect the company’s 2025 production growth, excluding former Hess operations, to be near the top of their guidance range of 6-8%, they said Oct. 31.

Chevron’s total production for the 3 months that ended Sept. 30 totaled nearly 4.09 MMboe/d compared with 3.37 MMboe/d in the same period last year. Excluding nearly 500,000 boe/d from Hess—which Chevron acquired this summer after an arbitrator ruled that ExxonMobil Corp. could not step in to buy Hess (OGJ Online, July 18, 2025)—as well as the loss of about 135,000 boe/d of production from divested assets, the company’s production growth in Q3 was 6.7%

In addition to Hess, a notable contributor to the production growth last quarter was the TCO project in Kazakhstan but Chevron executives also pointed to greater output in the Permian basin and the Gulf of Mexico. The latter two regions’ increases did not result in a profit increase, though: US upstream earnings for the quarter were $1.28 billion compared to $1.95 billion in the prior-year period due to lower liquids realizations and severance and other costs associated with the Hess purchase.

Speaking to analysts on a conference call, chairman and chief executive officer Mike Wirth said his team is looking to boost its exploration activities—“both people and capital”—after several years of focusing more on near-term priorities, such as Hess, that have grown its reserves.

“We’ve added a lot of new country entries over the last couple of years,” Wirth said, pointing to the South Atlantic, the west coast of South America and Nigeria, among others. “So we will look to have a broader program in some of those areas […] We’re going to be bringing new technology to bear and have some really interesting things going on.

“The short story is ‘More emphases on frontier exploration.’”

Also discussed on the call:

• Asked about broader capital spending trends in the Permian and the technological gains many players have scored of late, Wirth said it appears some of Chevron’s peers are guiding for capex to be flat to slightly down in the near future and said “that’s probably not a bad proxy” for his team’s plans. Chevron is on pace to spend about $4.5 billion in the Permian this year.
• Chevron’s wide-ranging cost-cutting plan—unveiled earlier this year with the aim of cutting up to 20% of its workers around the world—has generated about $1.5 billion in annualized savings so far. Executives said that number should grow further this quarter.

Shares of Chevron (Ticker: CVX) were up more than 2% to about $157 in midday trading Oct. 31. They have climbed more than 15% over the past 6 months, helping grow the company’s market capitalization to about $317 billion.