23 February 2015, News Wires – US supermajor Chevron said its oil and natural gas reserves fell by 1% last year largely due to the sale of its stake in a Chad oilfield.
The company posted proved reserves of 11.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent as of the end of 2014, Reuters reported.
At the end of 2014, about 20% of Chevron’s reserves were in Kazakhstan and 19% were in the US, the largest single areas of holdings, Chevron said.
Last year, Chevron sold its stake in an oil concession and pipeline system in Chad’s Doba basin to the country’s government for $1.3 billion.
The exit from the project, led by ExxonMobil, was largely seen as a way to refocus cash towards Chevron’s prolific Permian basin holdings in Texas, one of the top unconventional plays in the world.
While Chevron has invested billions of dollars in global energy projects in recent years, investors have grown anxious as smaller independent rivals, including Whiting Petroleum and Continental Resources, have successfully developed US shale plays.
More than half of Chevron’s 1.5 million Permian acres do not require royalty payouts to landowners, an advantage over rivals. Chevron is trying to lift Permian production to 250,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2020.
– Reuters