Chevron Highlights 2010 Performance and Future Growth at Annual Meeting of Stockholders

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) today highlighted the company’s 2010 performance and discussed the company’s future growth at the 2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

"A combination of safe, reliable operations and superior execution helped make 2010 an outstanding year both operationally and financially,” said John Watson, chairman and CEO. "As we look ahead to the next decade, we remain committed to safety and delivering profitable growth.”

Watson discussed Chevron’s strong 2010 financial and operational performance, which produced earnings of $19 billion. The company increased the quarterly dividend by 5.9 percent in 2010, marking 23 consecutive years of annual dividend increases. During this period, dividends grew at an average annual rate of 7 percent. Chevron announced another quarterly dividend increase in April 2011. Watson said that Chevron led its peers in total stockholder return over the past five years, besting the S&P 500 by more than 14 percentage points. The company maintained its leading position in total stockholder return through the first quarter of 2011.

Watson reinforced Chevron’s long-standing commitment to safe, reliable operations. Chevron is an industry leader in safety and in 2010 achieved the best safety performance in the company’s history. He also discussed the partnerships Chevron has formed to address health, education and economic development issues in the communities where the company operates. Over the past four years, Chevron’s social investments around the world have more than doubled.

George Kirkland, Chevron vice chairman and executive vice president for Global Upstream and Gas, discussed Chevron’s world-class queue of projects to meet the world’s future energy needs. Chevron plans on investing $26 billion in 2011, with 87 percent of that amount expected to fund upstream activities.

Kirkland noted that since late 2009, Chevron has added 14 million acres to its portfolio, including the acquisition of Atlas Energy in the northeast United States, and deepwater opportunities in Liberia and China. Kirkland also discussed Chevron’s queue of major capital projects, including Gorgon and Wheatstone in Australia. Over the next three years, 25 projects with a Chevron share of more than $250 million each are scheduled to start production, nine of which have a net Chevron share that exceeds $1 billion. Chevron has four major capital projects planned to start up in 2011. Additionally, over the next three years, the company expects to make final investment decisions on 13 more projects, each with a Chevron share in excess of $1 billion. Construction on the Gorgon project is nearly 25 percent complete, with startup expected in 2014, and Chevron remains on schedule to reach a final investment decision this year on the Wheatstone project, with startup planned for 2016.

Kirkland also discussed Chevron’s Downstream and Chemicals business, which delivered improved earnings and competitive performance in 2010. After completing a restructuring, Downstream and Chemicals has a lower cost structure and a portfolio focused on core markets, including North America and Asia. Last year, Chevron had three key downstream project startups at plants in South Korea, in Qatar, and in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Kirkland also discussed Chevron’s investments in projects that improve energy efficiency, flexibility and product diversity, including the 25,000-barrel-per-day base-oil plant in Pascagoula. When complete in 2013, Chevron will be one of the world’s leading suppliers of premium base oil. In addition, Chevron plans to deliver $700 million in improvements to its refinery system by the end of 2012, through a combination of improved efficiency, and controllable margin and yield improvement.

Stockholders voted on 11 proposals and supported the board’s recommendation on each of the proposals. As of May 25, 2011, the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election was as follows:

• Item 1: More than 1.2 billion shares, or approximately 90 percent of the votes cast, were voted for each of the 13 nominees for election to the board of directors.
• Item 2: More than 1.6 billion shares, or approximately 99 percent of the votes cast, were voted to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm.
• Item 3: Approximately 98 percent of the votes cast were voted to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation for the company’s executive officers.
• Item 4: Approximately 84 percent of the votes cast were voted to hold advisory votes on named executive officer compensation every year.
• Item 5: Approximately 25 percent of the votes cast were voted for the stockholder proposal regarding the appointment of an independent director with environmental expertise.
• Item 6: Approximately 3 percent of the outstanding shares of Chevron common stock were voted for the stockholder proposal to amend Chevron’s bylaws regarding a human rights committee of the board.
• Item 7: Approximately 6 percent of the votes cast were voted for the stockholder proposal regarding a sustainability metric for executive compensation.
• Item 8: Approximately 24 percent of the votes cast were voted for the stockholder proposal regarding guidelines for country selection.
• Item 9: Approximately 8 percent of the votes cast were voted for the stockholder proposal regarding financial risks from climate change.
• Item 10: Approximately 41 percent of the votes cast were voted for the stockholder proposal regarding hydraulic fracturing.
• Item 11: Approximately 9 percent of the votes cast were voted for the stockholder proposal regarding offshore oil wells.

Final voting results will be reported on Form 8-K, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.chevron.com. Specific information about the proposals before Chevron stockholders this year may be found in the Investor Relations section of the company’s website under Stockholder Services – "Annual Meeting Materials.”

Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT RELEVANT TO FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF "SAFE HARBOR" PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

This press release of Chevron Corporation contains forward-looking statements relating to Chevron’s operations that are based on management’s current expectations, estimates and projections about the petroleum, chemicals and other energy-related industries. Words such as "anticipates,” "expects,” "intends,” "plans,” "targets,” "projects,” "believes,” "seeks,” "schedules,” "estimates,” "budgets” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond the company’s control and are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. The reader should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Unless legally required, Chevron undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are: changing crude oil and natural gas prices; changing refining, marketing and chemical margins; actions of competitors or regulators; timing of exploration expenses; timing of crude oil liftings; the competitiveness of alternate energy sources or product substitutes; technological developments; the results of operations and financial condition of equity affiliates; the inability or failure of the company’s joint-venture partners to fund their share of operations and development activities; the potential failure to achieve expected net production from existing and future crude oil and natural gas development projects; potential delays in the development, construction or start-up of planned projects; the potential disruption or interruption of the company’s net production or manufacturing facilities or delivery/transportation networks due to war, accidents, political events, civil unrest, severe weather or crude oil production quotas that might be imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries; the potential liability for remedial actions or assessments under existing or future environmental regulations and litigation; significant investment or product changes under existing or future environmental statutes, regulations and litigation; the potential liability resulting from other pending or future litigation; the company’s future acquisition or disposition of assets and gains and losses from asset dispositions or impairments; government-mandated sales, divestitures, recapitalizations, industry-specific taxes, changes in fiscal terms or restrictions on scope of company operations; foreign-currency movements compared with the U.S. dollar; the effects of changed accounting rules under generally accepted accounting principles promulgated by rule-setting bodies; and the factors set forth under the heading "Risk Factors” on pages 32 through 34 in the 2010 of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition, such statements could be affected by general domestic and international economic and political conditions. Other unpredictable or unknown factors not discussed in this press release could also have material adverse effects on forward-looking statements.