Chief financial officer Eimear Bonner tells a Piper Sandler conference uncertainty around the climate for renewables means the energy giant will remain disciplined with its spending.
Geert De Lombaerde
The chief financial officer of Chevron Corp., Houston, said Mar. 18 that the energy giant is shifting to a “more wait-and-see” stance on investing in renewable fuels following recent actions and remarks from members of the Trump administration.
Speaking to the Piper Sandler 25th Annual Energy Conference in Las Vegas, Eimear Bonner said Chevron executives are looking to get a better understanding of what the Trump team’s recent moves could mean for elements of the Inflation Reduction Act that cover renewable energy. Administration members have talked about freezing funding for projects already approved and axing tax credits designed to stimulate renewables investments.
Chevron’s New Energies division houses several projects focused on markets in the crosshairs of such potential actions. The company is the majority owner of ACES Delta LLC, a joint venture that is developing a project in Utah that will produce hydrogen from water and renewable power and store it in two salt caverns, from where it can be called upon to generate power via gas turbines. Plans call for production to start later this year. The operator also is, among other things, building an oilseed processing plant in Louisiana with joint venture partner Bunge Ltd.
Some work on these initiatives is, along with work on lowering Chevron’s carbon intensity, part of $1.5 billion in capital allotted this year to Chevron's upstream and downstream businesses. Chevron's total 2025 capex is guided at $14.5-15.5 billion (OGJ Online, Feb. 3, 2025).
More broadly, Chevron has spent $7.7 billion on lower-carbon investments since 2021, a figure that includes $2.9 billion associated with the acquisition of diesel-focused Renewable Energy Group Inc. (OGJ Online, June 13, 2022).
How much more money will flow to these types of projects in the near term is uncertain. At a minimum, Chevron won’t soon be stepping up its investment pace.
“Fortunately, we haven’t deployed a lot of capital in these projects,” Bonner told the Piper audience. “We haven’t invested in projects that rely a lot on the [tax] credits. And so for that one, it’s more wait-and-see. We’ll continue to be disciplined in light of the uncertainty there.”
During her appearance at the Piper gathering, Bonner also said she expects that one of the Trump administration’s other priorities—tariffs—won’t have a material impact on Chevron’s operations or results. Less than 10% of the company’s refinery feedstocks come from Canada or Mexico, she said, and its drilling and completion teams mostly use American-made steel pipes in their work.
Shares of Chevron (Ticker: CVX) were changing hands around $162.70 in morning trading Mar. 19, up more than 1% from their previous close. Over the past 6 months, they have risen about 12%, growing the company’s market capitalization to about $286 billion.
https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/companies/article/55275781/chevron-exec-says-company-more-wait-and-see-on-ira-related-investments