Chevron's $21B Exploration Spend Hike May Upstage Buybacks

Chevron's CFO Eimear Bonner described the company's performance in six words: 'bigger, better and stronger than we've ever been.'

The stock was near its 52-week high of $214.71 at that time.

However, a report from the Financial Times revealed that Chevron plans to increase exploration spending by roughly 50% in 2027, with about 20 exploration wells and five or six appraisal wells compared to 10 in 2024.

The reason behind this increase is due to Chevron's reserve base, which closed 2025 with around 10.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent of proved reserves while producing above 4 million barrels a day, approximately seven years' worth of output.