The FINANCIAL — Chevron Corporation announced a $39.8 billion capital and exploratory investment program for 2014. Included in the 2014 program are $4.8 billion of planned expenditures by affiliates, which do not require cash outlays by Chevron.
The 2014 budget is approximately $2 billion lower than expected total investments for 2013. For the current year, total investments are estimated at $42 billion, including expenditures of approximately $4 billion for major resource acquisitions not included in the original budget, according to Chevron Corporation.
Approximately 90 percent of the 2014 spending program is budgeted for upstream crude oil and natural gas exploration and production projects. Another 8 percent is associated with the company's downstream businesses that manufacture, transport and sell gasoline, diesel fuel and other refined products, fuel and lubricant additives, and petrochemicals.
Almost 75 percent of affiliate expenditures are associated with investments by Tengizchevroil LLP in Kazakhstan and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (CPChem) in the United States.
Investment of $35.8 billion is planned for exploration and production activities, according to Chevron Corporation. Notable major capital investments include developments in Australia, Nigeria, the U.S. deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Permian Basin, Kazakhstan, Angola, and the Republic of the Congo.
Planned capital spending is also directed toward improving crude oil and natural gas recovery and reducing natural field declines from existing producing assets throughout the world. About 30 percent of the Upstream capital program is allocated to highly profitable development wells and other projects associated with current producing assets. The 2014 base program includes an increase in activity across several producing regions of North America as well as in Thailand and Indonesia.
In Australia, the Gorgon project has been under construction for four years and is almost 75 percent complete. The current estimate for the cost of the foundation project is US$54 billion (AU$55 billion), with plant startup and first gas planned for mid-2015, according to Chevron Corporation.
In the Gulf of Mexico projects under development include Jack/St. Malo, Big Foot, and Tubular Bells. The Jack/St. Malo hull has been moored at the offshore location and is on schedule for a 2014 startup. The Big Foot project is forecasting a third quarter 2014 tow to location and a second quarter 2015 start-up.
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