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Chevron ( CVX ) maintains dividend and share buyback strategy

despite

lower crude prices

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Production flat year-over-year, impacted by asset sales

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Chevron's ( CVX ) Q1 oil and gas earnings drop from previous year

By Sheila Dang

HOUSTON, May 2 (Reuters) - Chevron ( CVX ) on Friday

reported first-quarter earnings that met Wall Street estimates,

but said it would spend less on share repurchases in the current

quarter, reflecting the shaky economic outlook faced by Big

Oil.

The company's share repurchases this year could be between

$11.5 billion and $13 billion, said Chevron ( CVX ) Chief Financial

Officer Eimear Bonner, which would be in the lower end of the

company's guidance of $10 billion to $20 billion.

Shares of Chevron ( CVX ) fell 2% in pre-market trading on Friday.

Chevron ( CVX ) and other oil producers have been contending with

falling crude prices since April 2, when U.S. President Donald

Trump announced sweeping tariffs that are expected to reduce

global economic growth.

An unexpected decision by OPEC+ to increase output has further

pressured oil prices, which hit a four-year low last month.

The lower crude prices have raised questions about whether

producers will meet their goals for paying dividends and

repurchasing shares - a cornerstone of Big Oil's strategy to woo

investors - or cut capital expenditure budgets.

Chevron ( CVX ) said it paid $3 billion in dividends and repurchased

$3.9 billion in shares during the quarter.

In the second quarter, the company said it expects to

repurchase between $2 billion and $3.5 billion in shares. If

rolled forward, that would mean Chevron ( CVX ) could land between $11.5

billion and $13 billion in repurchases for 2025, Bonner said in

an interview.

"We're still buying back a significant amount of our shares

annually, on top of a dividend that's growing faster than our

peers," she said.

The second-largest U.S. oil producer posted adjusted

earnings of $3.8 billion during the three months ended March 31,

or $2.18 per share, matching analyst estimates, according to

LSEG data.

Chevron's ( CVX ) global oil production totaled 3.35 million barrels

of oil equivalent per day (boepd), flat from the same period

last year. Earnings from oil and gas production were $3.76

billion, down from $5.24 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Scheduled maintenance in oil and gas production during the

current quarter will lower output by about 105,000 boepd, the

company said.

Refining profit improved from the previous quarter, when

Chevron's ( CVX ) downstream operations reported the first loss in four

years.

The company completed an expansion at the Tengiz oilfield in

Kazakhstan in January and grew production from the Permian

basin, the top U.S. oilfield, by 12% year-over-year. Those gains

were offset by loss of production from asset sales.

Chevron ( CVX ) also started production at the Ballymore project in the

U.S. Gulf of Mexico in April.

Operations at Tengiz have been in focus as Kazakhstan has

repeatedly exceeded OPEC+ oil production quotas. Bonner said the

company is operating unrestricted.

During the first quarter, Chevron ( CVX ) was hit by a Trump

administration order to wind down operations in Venezuela, which

will impact the company's second-quarter shipments from the

country.