by Sabrina Valle
(Reuters) – U.S. oil major Chevron on Tuesday raised its share buyback target and confirmed its production forecast to rise more than 3% a year by 2027, while increasing spending in the United States.
The group increased its annual share buyback target by 17% to $17.5 billion from the second quarter and doubled its annual range to between $10 billion and $20 billion by 2025, assuming a price of the barrel of Brent LCOc1 between 50 and 70 dollars, against around 80 dollars currently.
The oil giant, which is due to hold its investor day later on Tuesday, expects spending in 2023 to be close to the top of the $15-17 billion range through 2027, with increased investment in United States, the group said.
Chevron reaffirmed its intention to reach one million barrels per day of oil and gas from the Permian Basin by 2025.
The oil giant said in January that it would triple its share buyback envelope to $75 billion.
Chevron’s record profit in 2022 enabled it to authorize the most ambitious shareholder payout among Western oil producers, which last year paid out a record $219 billion in dividends and share buybacks.
These records have prompted calls for governments to impose windfall taxes on the sector to help consumers cope with soaring energy costs.
Chevron distributed $26 billion through dividends and stock buybacks in 2022 and invested $15.7 billion in its operations.
(Reporting Sabrina Valle in Houston and Arunima Kumar in Bangalore; French version Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)
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