Okay. That concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you, Mike, Imer. As a reminder, additional guidance can be found in the appendix of the presentation, as well as in the slides and other information that's posted on Chevron.com. We're now ready to take your questions. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question, and we'll do our best to get all of your questions answered. Katie, please open the lines.

thank you if you have a question at this time please press star 1 on your touch tone telephone to allow for questions for more participants we ask you limit yourself to one question if your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue please press star 2 if you are listening on the speakerphone we ask you please lift your handset before asking your question to provide optimum sound quality again if you have a question please press star 1 on your touchstone telephone. Our first question comes from Neil Mehta with Goldman Sachs.

Yeah, thank you, Mike and Ymir, and welcome back, Janine. You know, Mike, I would love your perspective on the current conflict in the Middle East, and if you could share how you think about this in the context of your four-decade history in oil and gas and how significant of a moment What do you think the long-term implications are of the current conflict? And I know at the Analyst Day in November, we talked about a flat nominal $70 Brent as a mid-cycle planning assumption, but does this event change the way you think about mid-cycle pricing?

Yeah, thank you, Neil. You know, this is clearly a very significant disruption to the global energy system. It's a scenario that, you know, we've thought about, we've, you know, included in some of our planning exercises for many, many years. It's early, I think, to have firm conclusions about how the energy system will change in the long term. I do think there will be changes. But I think we have to see how things play out over the coming weeks, hopefully not longer than that, as this comes to some sort of a resolution and the energy system begins to be reconstituted in a way that can reach some new equilibrium. I think that new equilibrium will look different than what we've known before, but I'm not sure i could argue with a lot of confidence that i could describe exactly what that looks like one thing you can expect from us is consistency you will see capital and cost discipline no matter what you will see us invest in highly competitive assets with scale and longevity no matter what assets that are low on the cost curve you're going to see us invest to drive strong returns and free cash flow, maintain a strong balance sheet so we can create predictable and growing shareholder distributions. We've got great visibility through 2030. Emer just reiterated our guidance for that and we've got assets online now that deliver predictable visible cash flow growth for the balance of this decade and we've got a full hopper for beyond that and so I think the things that Eimer talked about, consistency, discipline, the strength of our portfolio on the ground operating today are all things that will underpin our strategy to go forward. And as we see how this is resolved and as we see what the energy system begins to look like post the conflict, if we want to fine tune that at all, we'll come back and talk to you about it. but I really think it's early for me to give you anything concrete other than to reiterate I think the things that that you've seen out of us and that in my 44 years have stood us in good stead through unexpected events and and cycles are characteristics that you should expect to endure thank you thank you

we'll take our next question from Arun Jaram with JP Morgan yeah good morning

and thanks for taking my question uh mike and emert feels like one of the key themes from the print is the opportunity for chevron to optimize you know margins from the refining system as well as your increased exposure to waterborne crudes post the hess merger and i'm looking at slide four i was wondering if you could help us think about the value capture opportunities and maybe the experience in one q and how should we think about this integration you know favorably impacting your go-forward earnings power yeah

thanks Rune as part of the organizational changes that we made last year we stood up a global enterprise optimization team and and they've really got the remit across all of the upstream and the downstream to be sure that we're getting maximum value out of the entire set of assets and we're integrating where it makes sense. They've done a really nice job in the last quarter of keeping our system operating at high degrees of utilization, capturing good margins through volatility. Our portfolio provides options to, you know, to move things around in times like this. Our refineries in Asia, which are all in various types of ventures, we expect those to run over 40 percent chevron equity crude in the second quarter much higher than under normal market conditions and probably much higher than we'll see in some of the other refining assets in that region because we have the ability to direct equity flows to those refineries at a time when access to crude is is very important and very difficult in the US we're operating over 50% equity crude throughput. Some refineries much, much higher than that. We've used the Jones Act waiver to move crudes from the Gulf Coast around to the West Coast. In Asia, you know, in the first quarter, we ran CPC blend, we ran Mars, we ran WTI, all in our GS Caltech's refinery in South Korea and just to give you a point of reference I used to run our downstream business and in those days we were about 15 percent equity crude into our refining system 85 percent crudes from the market as I said we expect to be over 40 percent in in Asia north of 50 and much higher than some refineries in the US and so that's a significant change from our history and at a time when margins are likely to move back and forth across that value chain they may be in the upstream they may be in the downstream we're going to be able to capture those with a much higher degree of confidence and importantly in a world that is getting very tight on products we're going to keep our assets very full and be able to provide a significant supply into markets that you know dearly need it and so we're not going to quantify the value that we're capturing but I think you'll see it flow through in the numbers and it is it is meaningful and I think that's continuing already into the second quarter and likely be

beyond. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take our next question from Devin McDermott with Morgan Stanley. Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my

question. So, Emer, in your prepared remarks, you highlighted Chevron's longstanding and consistent financial priorities. I wanted to build on that a bit and get your latest thinking on capital allocation at higher prices, particularly that balance between shareholder returns, building cash, and growth you did leave the buyback range unchanged quarter over quarter which I think makes a lot of sense and I commend you for not being pro cyclical on the buyback but maybe just talk through the strategy there and then on the growth spending side what would you need to see to shift spending maybe add some capital in the Permian and move away from the plateau back toward growth and that assets are two parts of the question but would love to hear your thoughts yeah

Thanks. Thanks, Devon. Well, overall, it comes back to staying consistent with our four financial priorities and being really disciplined on that through volatility. So that's why today we're not changing any of our capital allocation framework. We're not changing any of our ranges. And we're happy with where we are and with all of those. so just maybe to recap you know first and foremost growing the dividend and this year we've grown it for the 39th consecutive year and to investing in the business in the most a capital efficient way our budget is 18 to 19 billion for the year we're on track with that budget our capital performance is really really strong with that capital we're going to grow seven to ten percent production this year so we're reconfirming that growth and the third is the balance sheet the balance sheets sheet is in great health the balance sheet will get stronger with higher cash generation and then fourth is is the buyback staying within 2.5 to 3 billion for the range so with only eight weeks into the conflict as Mike said it's too early to have a different view on you know the fundamental outlook around price and it's too early to see or have a view of whether that is structurally a changing and so when it comes to capital allocation and we're comfortable with where we are and we're staying consistent and and disciplined

thanks Devin thank you we'll take our next question from Doug Luggett with

Wolf Research thank you good morning everyone um Mike and Imer I wonder if I I could follow up on Devin's question and maybe just ask for a little bit more colour around two specific assets. Obviously, you had some changes in Venezuela, Mike. But my understanding is that's been running essentially as recycling cash flow to maintain the business and obviously pay down your legacy money, your own debt and so on. But I'm wondering, are you at a point now where the fiscal terms have changed, The security situation is different. You know, basically the broad picture for Venezuela where you would be prepared to incrementally put more capital. And I guess I'd ask the same question of the Permian where, you know, not so long ago you did have a growth story there. You stabilized it, but one could argue that in both of those areas there might be a call for incremental oil production longer term and you guys are in a pretty strong position to deploy capital if you did. So I guess it's a capital increase question, but it's also specific to those two assets.

Yeah, so Doug, I guess what I would say, number one is we are operating now, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, with TCO greater than a million barrels a day, Permian solidly above a million barrels a day, the Australian LNG facilities running at full capacity, the Gulf of America, I mean, all the, you know, the big pistons in the engine are firing. And as we come into the second quarter, we've got tremendous momentum across the system. Production in the second quarter expected to be higher than production in the first quarter. Emer reiterated 7 to 10 percent production growth guidance for the year. And so we've got strong growth in the business right now. and uh and so and then we've got options right we've got a portfolio that that presents us with with options uh i think emer said it pretty well in response to devon it's early into this conflict to be making big changes uh we don't know how things will be resolved you could build a scenario where things get uh resolved quickly the straight reopens and um and you know we get back into a market that's pretty well supplied uh you can build another scenario that says this goes on and the market's tighter and it looks different on the other side of it. I don't know exactly how this will play out. So we're not going to make any rash or, you know, immediate changes to a system that's running at a high degree of capital efficiency today and operating efficiency. Really important to stay focused on reliability at a time like this and safety at a time like this. Specific to Venezuela, your understanding is right. We are still recycling cash flow. we still have debt to recover we're obviously recovering at a faster rate in this kind of a price environment and and there are indicators of positive developments in the country but there's still questions and so the the fiscal terms are not clear there's ranges that they've indicated for tax for royalties there's still things that need to be addressed relative to dispute resolution etc and so we'll continue to operate in the mode we're in right now which has yielded some growth over the past couple of years and, in fact, yielded growth this year. But we need to see further progress before we would put more capital to work. We've got a lot of resource there. We could grow it. In the Permian, I think Aimer mentioned that, and we're running the Permian to deliver strong free cash flow right now. We could hit the gas and begin to grow it again, but I don't know what the future looks like. And at this point, the value that we're seeing an improved asset reliability and reduced loss production to downtime etc is very real and and we get that because we are so focused on that and a shift to quickly turn to more production growth might dilute that that focus and so you know we'll update you over time if our view on these things changes but for right now I think it's really steady as she goes thank you

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Steve Richardson with Evercore.

Hi, good morning. Thank you. Mike, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the exclusivity agreement with Microsoft on the Power Project. Specifically, you've been at this for a while. No doubt you've learned some things, and it's been a bit of a journey getting to this place in terms of dealing with a different type of counterparty in a different industry, but also could you just update us on, you know, time to clarity on contract and FID and all those good things?

Sure. So, you know, it has been reported, I think we've confirmed that, that we're in an exclusive discussion with Microsoft right now. We're very pleased to be in those discussions with such a high-quality customer as Microsoft. And it's a company we know well. They've been a partner of ours for a long time. They're our primary cloud provider. they've been a key technology provider to us for many many years and we've got a deep and very good relationship with Microsoft the project that we're advancing in West Texas is progressing well we've submitted an air permit we've secured not only the large turbines that we've talked about before but also small block generation that's useful in early scale up and for some reliability we've selected an EPC who's doing engineering work on that we've agreed with a water provider etc so we're advancing the project with a lot of pace we're beginning to take delivery on turbines this year so you know subject to definitive agreements which we are in negotiations for we will move towards FID later this year and and I think we'll you know deliver a project with with speed with scale and it's differentiated will remain disciplined on turns the negotiations thus far look like we can find a place to meet where Microsoft's expectations on power prices and our expectations on return on investment can both be satisfied and and so like I say we're very very pleased you know I think we'll probably have more to say about this on the next call so stay tuned

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Baraj Borkataria with Royal Bank of Canada.

Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to follow up on Venezuela again. This situation is obviously evolving quite quickly. At the start of the year, comments from the U.S. administration was essentially around oil companies not looking backwards at the receivables balance and looking forward. And then more recently, you today and some of your peers have been talking about the potential to get some of that paid back so my question is really how should we think about what is a reasonable timeframe to assume for you to get your you know a couple billion dollars receivable balance back thank you

yeah Baraj we came into the year with you know in round number something close to a billion and a half dollars in a receivable as I said you know the rate at which that gets paid down is somewhat a function of the price and we're receiving it faster this year than than last year obviously I think we'll still carry some sort of a balance on that as we get to the end of this year but much lower than we are and I think that would probably be fully paid off at some point in 2027 and subsequently we would you know update you on what the model would be for cash distributions going forward and I think by the time we get to 2027 some of these open questions that I referred to in response to prior question relative to tax royalty contract terms etc are likely to be clarified and we'll be able to give you more guidance on what we might do relative to capital investment you know I think in any scenario we remain at the advantage incumbent with people on the ground with operations with supply chains and contract resources etc that put us in a very good position to you know be a big big player there presuming that we see further progress

thank you we'll take our next question from Sam Margolin with Wells Fargo

hey good morning thank you for taking the question on the long term is very limited right now but in the near term you know there's some extraordinary things happening to you know localized shortages could start to become an issue in some of the places that you operate you know in the in the next couple of months depending on how the situation plays out Chevron is exposed to these kind of idiosyncratic market events volatility events not just in regular operations but also in the way you manage the supply chain so I wonder you know in the context of the time effect in one cube and the derivatives exposure if anything's changed or if you're adjusting kind of your operating posture you know within this extraordinary environment

yes Sam it is a it is an unusual environment you know we've had experience working in unusual environments 2020 we saw kind of the inverse of this with the collapse of demand and excess supply in 2022 we saw a version of this when the conflict in ukraine began and so you know we've got a playbook to deal with these things and you work on optimizing supply into these markets you look at your financial exposures and counterparty circumstances and and manage your your risks there the the timing effects that were reported are you know the kinds of things you expect in a market like this and the kinds of things we've seen before and so there's nothing unusual there was a big run-up in in crude price over the the course of the quarter and things that normally don't really appear in our financials relative to derivatives become very evident in the market like that in a market that goes the other way you know you see those effects and they go the other direction and so I wouldn't overreact any things in our numbers we're very focused on supply in the markets and I mentioned you know Asia where there is clearly you know some of the nearest term stresses we are working to keep our refineries in Asia running it I would argue probably the highest degree of utilization of anybody out there because we can direct crude into those refineries I gave an example of some of the crews we've moved there we can take crews that would normally go into our u.s. refineries we've got good substitutions for those that are available to us and we can move other crews we've got access to into Asia and so we're very sensitive to trying to maintain supply into markets that are getting tight we're very sensitive to the you know the implications of this for customers for counterparties etc and And so, you know, it's a dynamic situation, but we've got an organization that's very experienced in managing through these unpredictable and dynamic markets, and I'm very confident that we can manage those exposures very well.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Betty Cheng with Barclays.

Good morning. I'm Mike Imer. Thank you for taking my question. I want to ask about the TCO. In your prepared remarks, you actually mentioned that TCO is producing above. a million barrel BLE per day so that's above your nameplate capacity and that's coming back from the disruptions that you saw in 1q and would you speak to where that asset is performing what's driving that outperformance and maybe the deep bottlenecking opportunities and then while we're on this topic mike could you just give us an update on any um how the renegotiation contract

conversation is going sure Betty so first of all TCO returned to full service in March following the repairs on the electrical system in February and there were some adverse weather dynamics in the Black Sea in early March we've got two out of the three single point moorings available at CPC the third one later this year but with two we can handle full flow on the pipeline so the the pipeline's running full the plant is running full we've done a lot of maintenance work as a part of you know what's going on over here this last period of time and we have the plant expected to be at near full availability for the remainder of this year you mentioned the debottlenecking work that we did late in 2025 we've now got that you know running in its new configuration early performance has been very encouraging I don't think we've got enough runtime yet to give you any specific guidance on that we just need to see a little bit more operational data but you can expect on the next call that we should give you an update on that and you know at times like this when the market signals are to run all of your assets as strongly as you possibly can but that's what's happening at TCO we continue to see the benefits of a centralized control center in optimizing all the different generations of processing capability there and finding I'll call it white space or the opportunity to squeeze more production through those assets it's a very complex optimization equation and we've got new tools to do that in ways that we just never have before and so I'm encouraged by what we're seeing thus far and we'll give you more guidance next quarter. on the concession you know we're making good progress there in the discussions we're working closely with all partners in the venture and the Republic there are technical and commercial teams that have been established and all partners and government representatives are actively participating in that process I think this is ensured that we keep everyone well aligned we're proceeding on the same path and it's moving along so that's another one where I think at some point later this year we'll give you an update this is a venture that's creating enormous value for all stakeholders whether it's the the partners or the Republic over the last 33 years and we're looking for a solution that will continue that history maybe final point on TCO overall our guidance of six billion dollars in free cash flow this year is unchanged and that accounts for you know the operational issues that we saw in the first quarter it accounts for you know what we're seeing today and so uh you know the the cash flow guidance at six billion at seventy dollars so obviously at a at a higher price if that's where we end up this year you know we'll see stronger than that thanks bade we'll take our next question

from lucas herman with bnp peribas yeah thanks very much um mike emma just touching on the lng

business briefly i mean the market's obviously tighter i just wondered how much flex you've across your portfolio to take advantage of you know arbitrage or other opportunities that may be emerging and how much product I you know how much production is not effectively committed that was broadly it thank you okay

thanks Lucas yeah so you know we ended last year with a portfolio that's about 16 million tons per year majority of that obviously is out of Australia we've got 40 TCF of resource and access to the you know the strong and growing demand and in Asia. Globally, our portfolio is about 80% long-term oil-linked contracts and about 20% exposed to the spot market. We like that over time. I think coming into this year with some of the expectations for length in the LNG market, people would have said that's a good place to be. When spot prices get very strong, obviously, you say, well, I'd like to have more spot we've got to look our way through those kinds of cycles and you know our oil and contracts which have a lag you know don't show a lot of the current market environment in the first quarter you can expect in subsequent quarters that you will see you know that flow through into the the pricing on that 80% of our volume and of course the 20% that sold under spot contracts is seeing the kinds of prices you've seen in the market recently we just sold our first U.S.-based cargo, and that will grow by 2030 to another 4 million tons per annum, so that will take us up to 20. That was sold into Europe on spot-based prices. And, you know, we've got our, I mentioned earlier, we've got our portfolio running very, very strongly, Wheatstone and Gorgon at full rates, same in West Africa. So we're seeing the benefits of this, and and the proportions are as I described.

Thank you, we will take our next question from Manav Gupta with UBS.

Good morning, I wanted to shift to chemicals. Globally we are seeing naphtha crackers run dry because there's just not enough naphtha. Your portfolio is very US centric, there's a little bit out there with 15%, but mostly the capacity is in the US. And what we are hearing is that they're pushing for 20 cents per pound polyethylene price hike. So we ended fourth quarter at record low historic margins. but 2Q could be actually over mid-cycle. Can you talk a little bit about that and how you benefit from that?

Sure, Manav. So just to remind everybody, our exposure to petrochemicals is primarily through Chevron Phillips chemical, also some through GS Caltex in Korea. And CP Chem is very much tilted towards ethane-based cracking here in North America and some in the Middle East. CPChem is liquids cracking, but it's derived from its own refining flows and so not reliant upon naphtha supply out of the Middle East. We've seen strong price moves, particularly in the olefins chain, which is where most of our exposure is. And those price moves is, I think you're probably aware, we're predominantly here in the second quarter. So you don't see much of that in the first quarter. But chain margins have significantly improved from very low levels, as you mentioned last year, to what now are chain margins that I would agree are likely better than mid-cycle chain margins. And I think you're going to see for people that have assets that are up and running in parts of the world where you're cracking advantage feedstock, and certainly North America ethane would be described that way, you should see pretty good margin capture in those businesses, absolutely.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Jean Ann Salisbury with Bank of America.

Hi, good morning. I wanted to get your latest thoughts on the Bakken, whether the initiatives to lower cost have given you more conviction that it's core in your portfolio, and whether the higher oil prices may have increased the interest from others in owning that asset.

So, look, the Bakken assets have been running well. you know we've said there you should probably expect to see a couple hundred thousand barrels a day production there to plateau first quarter was a little bit below that primarily on some some weather effects we've brought down the rig count there we're running three rigs now versus four previously we're drilling longer laterals we think we can sustain production that way and fully utilize existing infrastructure drive strong free cash flow there we're applying you know best practices from our portfolio bringing some things in from from Hesse's practices like we did from from Noble and PDC this is a more liquids weighted position in the shale and so you're right the strong liquids pricing makes it perform very very well and you know we were getting interest from from others really since we've announced the deal and certainly since we've closed the deal. We've had some incoming on that. We want to see a little bit more operating data and really understand the asset. As I mentioned before, we've underestimated the quality of the DJ when we acquired Noble. Thankfully, we didn't sell it quickly. And here, we want to be sure we fully appreciate the value that we've got in the Bakken. I'll give you an example of one of the things we'll be doing. We're testing advanced chemicals to improve recovery in the Bakken today. Things we've been doing in the Permian and in the DJ, early response looks pretty good. And so to the extent we've got ways we can improve the recovery and the value on that asset and maybe do some things that aren't available to others, we ought to be able to drive more value out of that than a buyer potentially could. And so performing very well really pleased with it and and you know we're we're in no hurry to do anything other than continue to improve it and you know in due course like every other asset in the portfolio we ask questions about how does it fit for the long term but it's a little premature for us to be asking

that question today thank you we'll take our next question from James West with

Mellius research hey good morning Mike Emmer and Jeanine I wanted to dig in a little bit on your eastern Mediterranean assets, it seems to me that the region, given the conflict near that region, that sure, those assets are much more valuable at this point. And so as we think about Leviathan, Tamar, which you operate, and then Aphrodite, which I know you're not an operator, but you're obviously involved, heavily involved there, how you're thinking about those assets going forward because there's a lot of natural gas that needs to get to a lot of places in the region for energy security purposes and others. So I'd love to get your quick thoughts on that.

Yeah, so broadly speaking, James, I would agree with you. We have liked these assets from the get-go. That's why we're investing in expanding production at both Tamar and Leviathan, making good progress on those projects with some ramp-up this year of another 600 million cubic feet per day of production on a 100% basis, a longer-term expansion of Leviathan underway. We took FID on that in January and are excited about that. Of course, we've begun feed work at Aphrodite. So this is a high-quality, nice, clean, biogenic gas. The demand for the gas in the region continues to grow, and supply reliability everywhere in the world now is, you know, obviously a priority. And so the markets that we're feeding are growing, and the quality of the resource is very high. The quality of the assets, you know, just a shout-out back to Noble. Those continue to impress us as we look at the expansions with the way they were engineered and designed. And, you know, we view the Eastern Med as an area with some growth potential. We've got exploration activity there, and it's a, you know, you can think of it as a big gas hub with a lot of resource that has been discovered and more still to be discovered. And so we're pleased with our position there, and you can expect us to continue to pursue exploration and development opportunities over time.

Thank you. We will take our next question from Bob Brackett with Bernstein Research.

Good morning. You mentioned that Chevron of course has a playbook to deal with supply shocks. Governments around the world also dust off playbooks during supply shocks. Can you talk to what sort of government policies around the world that are helpful during a supply shock and which are perhaps unhelpful?

Yeah, you're right, Bob. There are playbooks all across the spectrum, and there are policies that are helpful in responding to a circumstance like this, and there are those that are not. Broadly speaking, we've got a supply challenge in the world, so policies that encourage more supply, that enable supply, that facilitate the ease of supply are the ones that are helpful, and I'll give you some examples, releases of strategic reserves. Clearly, that puts oil into the market that wouldn't otherwise be there. That's a good policy move. In the U.S., we've seen the waiver of the Jones Act. That allows us to use ships that otherwise couldn't trade in these markets to move supplies from where they exist to where they're desperately needed. That's a good move we've seen moves to relax specifications which take a government imposed constraint on what product can move to what market and enable you to move products that are needed and and otherwise would not be able to do so so those are the kind we've seen in the US another one we've seen is the use of Defense Production Act to enable some offshore California production to come into service and get into the market. And, you know, we're working with the operator of that asset to get it to our El Segundo refinery to meet local needs. California is the state where the supply pinch is being felt first, and I would say most acutely, and it's flowed through all the way to the street. And so there are a number of actions that have been taken that I think have been very positive in terms of creating supply and flexibility in the system to get that supply where it's needed. The actions that can be unhelpful are price caps which do not allow the signal to use energy efficiently flow through into the economy and they send a signal that can discourage the creation of supplies into markets that need them, well intended to buffer the impact of this on consumers and economies, but what it does is it distorts the normal behavior of the market export bans can do the same thing they can constrain supplies that would otherwise flow into the market to the places that need them most and and you know and make the situation worse and then of course the the one that a number of governments have gone to historically are some sort of taxes on profits that are generated during periods like this the history of those taxes is they don't generate nearly as much revenue as they're initially advertised to do and what they do is they send unhelpful questions about future investments and so they can slow the supply response not in the immediate term but out into the medium term and create circumstances which create vulnerabilities out into the And so we're engaged with governments around the world to discuss these policies, to encourage those that really do help respond to the situation and to caution people about policies that that may not help. One thing that a company like ours with a large diverse portfolio has is we're not overly exposed to a potential bad policy decision in any particular market because we have such a broad footprint, a more narrow footprint or one that's more concentrated in some of these areas could be more vulnerable to those effects. Thanks, Bob.

We will take our next question from Philip Jungworth with BMO.

Thanks. Thanks. A lot going on in the world right now, but I wanted to ask about U.S. climate litigation, just because that's been an overhang for the industry for a while. We might get some clarity here with the Supreme Court now taking up the issue with the Colorado case, but how much do you think this could settle the question around state versus federal jurisdiction and just advance

the whole climate debate in the U.S.? Yeah, we're not a party to that litigation, Phil, so I can't comment too specifically about it but you know we are party to another case that was just heard by the Supreme Court and concluded that a case that had been heard in state court really should be removed to federal court and I won't get into the rationale behind that you may or may not be familiar with it but the principles are somewhat analogous that this is a matter for federal courts to decide in our view and in fact it's truly a matter for elected officials to decide and establish climate policies that appropriately reflect the the sentiment of the public and the the interest of the nation and that you know cities counties states are not the appropriate place for climate policy to be established nor for climate issues to be subject to litigation and so we're hopeful that the you know the case that does make the Supreme Court provides some clarity at the at the federal court level we've seen kind of mixed views come out and so this is a matter that I think really would benefit from some some clarity that emerges from the highest court in the land and you know

more to follow thanks for the question Phil we will take our next question from

Nitin Kumar with Mizuho hey good morning Mike and Imer thanks for taking my question um you know back in november you had given us a little bit of an update on your exploration program um kind of setting up the company beyond 2030 i included some country potential options into new countries given the events that have happened here in the last eight weeks any change to the picking order of those priorities or anything that you're prosecuting little bit faster to get that oil to the market no you know I would say it really hasn't changed

and I mean exploration is a longer cycle activity we've got a portfolio that's diverse I think that's valuable as you look at the circumstances right now we do have some opportunities in the Middle East region but we certainly have a number of opportunities we're highly interested in that are outside of the Middle East, and, you know, the reality that the world needs this energy supply and will need it long into the future means that we need to continue to look for resource around the world. We're pleased with the portfolio that we've built up. We're pleased with some of the new talent that has joined the company. We've got a different model under which we're making decisions now. We're using new technologies to try to improve the – both the cycle time and the success of our exploration program so you can expect to see those things continue we've increased our financial commitment to it as well and so more to follow but I think this is a discussion that will occur over the next number of years and you know to the kind of earlier comments if we're not going to change our activity levels in the Permian for instance in response to the last few weeks of disruption certainly that's a place where you do have shorter term handles you could pull something like exploration which is longer cycle really doesn't get affected by this in the short term thank you we will take

our next question from Jason Giebelman with TD Cowan yeah hey thanks for taking

my question um you you've guided to your equity affiliate distributions being at about 70% of what the full year guide is by the end of 2Q. I'm assuming some of that is related to the higher oil price. Can you just talk about if the relationship between equity distributions and the oil price is linear and if you have a rule of thumb there to help the market kind of think about the potential upside as a result of what we're seeing in the market? Thanks.

Yeah, Jason, obviously, as Mike talked about, we're coming into the second quarter with a lot of really strong momentum on our affiliates, starting with TCO, back at full rates and testing the upside of the capacity. CPChem is also contributing, Angola LNG, full, so those would be examples of just the tailwinds that we're seeing on the assets and the strong momentum that we have. So that's why we were able to increase our affiliate distribution guidance today. And so it's over $2 billion more relative to the first quarter. It's because of the confidence that we have in the performance. Another thing I would mention is TCO has already changed their distribution schedule. they're now giving us dividends monthly we've already got the first first one in the bank in April so you know those those actions coupled with the operational momentum is why the the guidance is raised and look obviously the guidance is at $60 and so there's a lot of upside there's a lot of upside here depending on how prices unfold thanks for the question thank you we will take our

final question from Jeff Jay with Daniel Energy Partners. Hi, everyone. I guess I had a kind of a

follow-up to Bob Brackett's question, really, about California specifically. I mean, there's been a lot written about its reliance on imports, its low inventory levels. And I guess wondering, as an operator of refineries in that state, you know, have there been other relief valves? Has the Jones Act helped? Have there been other sort of operational changes that you've made to kind to make sure that that market's adequately supplied well you know i think you've referred

to i've referred to one and i guess both of them uh you know the um the ability to bring this new production offshore from from sable uh onshore and make sure that's getting into the california market that's california oil through a california pipeline to a california refinery to california customers and that was not happening just a few months ago uh same thing with jones act we can bring crude oil or products from the Gulf Coast that are that are needed in California you've got some special specifications you have to hit so maybe blend stocks that wouldn't come around but yes we are very sensitive to our customers in California and the circumstances there I think you're you're well aware of what California's policies have delivered to the state which is an oil industry that is in decline, whether that's upstream production or refining, where we've seen a couple of refineries shut down this year, that has constrained supply capability. And at a time when the world is feeling these constraints, California is reliant upon supplies from other parts of the world which are – may be needed to keep their own economies going. And so it's a real dilemma for the state. we are doing everything we can to meet our supply obligations there but it does point out the vulnerabilities that have been created in California as a result of decades of poor energy policy okay Katie it sounded like that was the last

person in the queue is that correct that is correct no additional questions in

queue at this time okay I'd like to thank everyone for your time today we appreciate your interest in Chevron and your participation on today's call please stay safe and healthy. Katie, back to you. Thank you. This concludes Chevron's first

quarter 2026 earnings conference call. You may now disconnect.