Chevron will sink US $36.7 Bn into projects by the end of this year, with 90% of the cash to fund upstream activities.

It also has 16 individual upstream projects within this group due onstream within the next five years that will see it invest more than $1 Bn in each, virtually all of them either deepwater or offshore LNG schemes. The US major, in its latest report to stockholders, said it had already invested nearly $111 Bn over the past five years in developing oil and gas resources around the world.

The biggest area of spend (including offshore and onshore) is in the Asia Pacific region (42%), while North America gets 30%, Africa 14% Europe/Eurasia & the Middle East 11% and Latin America 3%. By category deepwater gets 14% of the Capex figure, while LNG gets 26%, Upstream ‘base’ projects 29%, ‘Other' Upstream 12%, Exploration 9%, while Downstream Chemicals & other areas get just 10% of the spend.

George Kirkland, the company’s vice chairman and executive vice president for Upstream and Gas, stated that Chevron is on track to produce 3.3 MMboe/d by 2017, more than 98% of which will come from fields either online today or from projects under construction or in detailed design.

Over the next five years, 50 projects with a Chevron investment of more than $250m each are scheduled to start production. Of those 50, 16 have a planned net investment by the company of more than $1 Bn each.

Construction on the Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia is more than 60% complete, he added, with startup expected in late 2014. Startup of the Wheatstone LNG project, also in Western Australia, is planned for 2016. The company has made 21 deepwater gas discoveries in the area since 2009, adding 10 Tcf of resources.

Chevron achieved earnings of more than $26 Bn in 2012 and a return on capital employed (ROCE) of nearly 19%.

The company’s near-term deepwater growth projects include the Papa-Terra field offshore Brazil, due to startup later this year with a production capacity of 140,000 boe/d, Jack-St.Malo, Big Foot and Tubular Bells all in the US Gulf (and all due onstream during 2014 with capacities of 177,000 boe/d, 79,000 boe/d and 45,000 boe/d respectively). Chevron currently pumps 235,000 boe/d from its US Gulf operations, with 125,000 boe/d of that coming from its existing deepwater projects.

In the UK west of Shetland it also flagged up its Rosebank FPSO project in 1,128 m (3,700 ft) of water as a future major capital project, with an expected Financial Investment Decision in 2014 and planned peak production of 70,000 boe/d.

Key long-term exploration test areas highlighted were Canada, China, Liberia, Morocco, Sierra Leone and Suriname.