Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

GOM has been crushing RBU for years. Fact.
Enjoy your chump change.

The company is making money in the RBU.

So why don't you quit and go work for Shell or Exxon instead of hanging around bad-mouthing your own company, tough guy, no ba--s?

The only billion barrel field in the GOM is Thunderhorse, the rest is all small potatoes. Competitors are finding multi-billion barrel fields, massive legacy assets, in Brazil, Guyana, Norway, and elsewhere. Shell dominates GOM with scale and good decision-making. Exxon is leaving. BP only stays for Thunderhorse, which has had had no end of engineering disasters.

“ The good projects in GOM are offset by all the money lost in the disasters and dry holes, unfortunately”

So what is the verdict net-net?

The good projects in GOM are offset by all the money lost in the disasters and dry holes, unfortunately. They wrote off billions of losses on Stampede, Bigfoot, Tigris, etc. Poor decision-making, for the most part.

GOMBU makes awesome money. JSM paid off 10 years or project cost (time from finding to time of first oil including all infrastructure) in 9 months. Think about that. Once these big deep water projects hit they hit big but you have to keep finding them, which we have been less then successful in.

@4dhh, CTC/ETC has always been a waste of time and money. Looks good to say you have all these "experts" on staff, but in reality they're only experts on academic topics. None of them have any BU or outside experience. The couple times I have worked with CTC people, I've had to spend half the project time educating them on real world projects and real world problems. ...and it turns out they were billing me to educate them!

By GOMBU, I mean all of GOM (GOMBU + DEWP)

“And overall GOMBU has lost money for decades.”

Is that true? Overall, let’s say 2000-2020 what would be return rate at GOMBU.

I worked Angola, so I can easily say 2000-2020 would be barely break even at best for Angola.

So other than Kazakhstan where does the company make money?

@4zyo is taking a global perspective, and considering that, he or she is correct. They are also correct that Exxon's Guyana resources (which, again, current Chevron exploration management passed on) will be billions of easily producible barrels, something that the Permian is anything but. We'll see, though, if Permian assets can even out-produce Tahiti and Anchor, and if they do, it'll be much later in this decade, if at all. There's also a high likelihood Tahiti and Anchor will be still producing in 2040, while the Permian will have returned to tumbleweed and Friday Night Lights.

It is also true that Chevron has 'dog acreage' in Angola and Mexico, and hasn't discovered a drop of oil in Brazil in the 20+ years we've been there. During the time all that acreage was being amassed, all the company oil finders were working in DWEP, with a good degree of success for about ten years. Lots of money spent, but lots of oil reserves added during the DWEP days. Then the Boomers started retiring in 2015, and GOMBU took over the Gulf, running it as a production BU rather than an exploration BU. Basically no new reserves since then, and a plummeting exploration portfolio. Compare that with the various international exploration teams, typically understaffed and managed and 'advised' by clueless high-pots (marking time until their next promotion), with 'assistance' by CTC and its predecessors. Not an oil finder to be found anywhere. Basically Keystone Cops.

Tahiti and Anchor were developed but are not so significant. And overall GOMBU has lost money for decades. They burn more in leases, dry holes, wasted appraisal, and mis-development than they earn in production. Now they are trying the old tie-back story, which BP wrote the book on more than 20 years ago (without success). Significant exploration in our industry is multi-billion barrel discoveries, which our competitors (XOM, Shell) have made and continue making, mostly in Guyana, Brazil, and Angola. Chevron's only significant discovery was Agbami almost 30 years ago and even that was a huge uphill battle with Texaco management to get drilled. Our exploration staff is smart enough, but they lack leadership and strategy. They have failed (in their job!) to convince JJ and MW of their value by articulating it well. Chevron mostly treats exploration as an expense which is required window dressing for investors - they expect nothing from it and won't stick their neck out.

Winning! In any environment!

gone are the heydays...

@1qqy - Chevron exploration had its heyday 20 years ago with the Tahiti discovery, and its last significant viable discovery was Anchor, 7 years ago now. Remember, the current exploration management knowingly passed on all the Guyana acreage (and discoveries), just as their mentors passed on all the Angola deepwater discoveries in the late 90's. Two major (fatal?) problems with Chevron exploration - a) MW really, really likes the low-cost, quick payout Permian acreage and is putting all "his" money there, even if in the grand scheme of things it's low margin and only about a ten-year resource life; b) all the oil finders in the company (the few that there were) have now unceremoniously retired (note that amongst your current petrotech "Fellows", there's no one who has ever even drilled a well, let alone found anything...), and the current bunch of exploration management, advisors, and petrotechs have demonstrated well that they couldn't find oil in an AutoZone.

Don’t let the door hit you in the *ss on the way out

Chevron is NOT a better company. They’re interested in”woke” statistics…..not the business.

Bye

That is double the 2020 exploration forecast. The problem is they get the budget, but then can't find ways to spend it that get approved. Exec doesn't like bid rounds and nor expensive risky wells and appraisal seems to get deferred or cancelled.

"Upstream
In the upstream business, approximately $8 billion is allocated to currently producing assets, including about $3 billion for Permian Basin unconventional development and approximately $1.5 billion for other shale & tight assets worldwide. Additionally, $3 billion of the upstream program is planned for major capital projects underway, of which about $2 billion is associated with the Future Growth Project and Wellhead Pressure Management Project (FGP / WPMP) at the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan. Finally, approximately $1.5 billion is allocated to exploration, early-stage development projects, midstream activities and carbon reduction opportunities.

When exploration is listed as an after-thought (and grouped in with other after-thoughts), Chevron's days are numbered. I would guess about 15-20 years exploiting current reserves, then 10-20 years as a much smaller energy lemming.

Your hopes can come true if you just quit.

I am sure Chevron is not a better company. The financial situation is better, that's all.

Slash and burn...cost cut...layoff more people....cut costs.....increase dividend ....MW limited vocabulary great for CNBC, terrible for the poor disposable employees who given the chance actually make the money MW loves to save for the stock market.

We hope you won't be here either. yawn....

How is this bad? I don't understand, sorry fairly new to this.

If you are fired as a Christmas reward, you won't be here in 2022 and your wish to Santa will be granted. Good luck!

Magic Mike slash & burn