Chevron to Double Exploration Wells and Spending Amid Improved Discovery Targets

Chevron plans to significantly increase its exploration spending and drilling activity in 2025, aiming to improve weak discovery results and rebuild its reserves base. The company's total exploration spending is likely to exceed $1.5 billion this year, up from just under $1 billion last year.

According to Chevron, it will more than double its exploration wells to 20 next year, with a budget increase of over 50% above 2025 levels. The company's exploration acreage has doubled since 2024, and it is expanding into frontier regions such as South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Chevron's efforts to improve results come as the company competes with ExxonMobil, whose partnership with Hess delivered one of the largest oil finds in decades in Guyana in 2015. Chevron says part of the Guyana-focused team from its $53 billion takeover of Hess remains in place and is contributing ideas to Chevron's exploration effort.

The company is also testing AI tools on large seismic datasets, which have achieved a 90% accuracy rate in predicting discovery wells against dry holes during internal trials. Chevron's increased focus on exploration follows a period of weaker performance, including the announcement that a closely watched well in Namibia's Orange Basin did not find commercial quantities of oil and gas.