Chevron reported solid Q1 2026 results, with adjusted EPS of $1.41 and free cash flow of $4.1 billion, despite $3 billion in timing effects from a steep rise in commodity prices. Management highlighted the strategic advantage of its integrated portfolio, particularly in refining, where it can leverage its equity crude supply to maintain high utilization rates. Reaffirmed all 2026 guidance and 2030 targets, signaling confidence in its long-term strategy. Adjusted EPS of $1.41 and adjusted FCF of $4.1 billion reported for Q1 2026.
Chevron reported solid Q1 2026 results, with adjusted EPS of $1.41 and free cash flow of $4.1 billion, despite $3 billion in timing effects from a steep rise in commodity prices. Management highlighted the strategic advantage of its integrated portfolio, particularly in refining, where it can leverage its equity crude supply to maintain high utilization rates. Reaffirmed all 2026 guidance and 2030 targets, signaling confidence in its long-term strategy. Adjusted EPS of $1.41 and adjusted FCF of $4.1 billion reported for Q1 2026.
Chevron reported solid Q1 2026 results, with adjusted EPS of $1.41 and free cash flow of $4.1 billion, despite $3 billion in timing effects from a steep rise in commodity prices. Management highlighted the strategic advantage of its integrated portfolio, particularly in…
Adjusted EPS of $1.41 and adjusted FCF of $4.1 billion reported for Q1 2026.
Reaffirmed 2026 capex of $18-19 billion and production growth of 7-10%.
Highlighted that refining will run on over 40% equity crude in Asia and over 50% in the US, positioning it well during feedstock shortages.
Management reiterated all 2026 guidance and 2030 targets, citing strong operational momentum and asset reliability, framing the outlook as resilient despite market volatility.
Full-year capex guidance is unchanged at $18-19 billion despite the Middle East conflict; Q1 organic capex was $3.9 billion with lighter first-half spending. Management is holding capital and cost discipline, keeping the Permian at plateau and selectively advancing projects such as TCO debottlenecking and Eastern Mediterranean gas expansions.
Management repeatedly emphasized consistency and discipline through volatility, reaffirming guidance and avoiding pro-cyclical capital or buyback changes.
“we expect to be over 40% in Asia, north of 50, and much higher than that in some refineries in the U.S.”
“we expect Venezuela to continue to represent 1% to 2% of cash flow from operations.”
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UnitsTCO | FY2026 | $6B | $6B | MAINTAINED |
Chevron is in exclusive negotiations with Microsoft for a natural gas power project, suggesting a signed PPA is a near-term catalyst for both companies.
“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.”
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 turbines. 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, et cetera. 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 I think we'll deliver a project with speed, with scale, and that's differentiated. We'll remain disciplined on returns. 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 so, like I say, we're very, very pleased. I think we'll probably have more to say about this on the next call, so stay tuned.
Chevron is using its internal equity crude supply to keep its Asian refineries running at >80% utilization and >40% equity crude throughput while other refiners face feedstock shortages. — This implies Chevron can capture outsized refining margins during the crude supply disruption, potentially taking market share and margins from competitors without similar integrated supply.
Yeah, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Mike and Emer, it feels like one of the key themes from the print is the opportunity for Chevron to optimize 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 1Q, and how should we think about this integration favorably impacting your go-forward earnings power?
Yeah. Thanks, Rune. As part of the organizational changes that we made last year, we set up a global enterprise optimization team. 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 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% 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 very important and very difficult. In the U.S., we're operating at 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 Caltex 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% equity crude into our refining system and 85% crudes from the market. As I said, we expect to be over 40% in Asia, north of 50, and much higher than that in some refineries in the U.S. 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 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 meaningful. And I think that's continuing already into the second quarter and likely beyond. Thank you.