Chevron Makes Final Investment Decision to Construct Gorgon Natural Gas Project

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) today announced that its subsidiary, Chevron Australia Pty Ltd, will proceed with the development of the Gorgon natural gas project offshore Western Australia. Development proposals for the project were approved today by the Western Australian State Premier the Hon. Colin Barnett, MLA, and production licenses were granted by the Australian Minister for Resources and Energy the Hon. Martin Ferguson AM, MP.

"With a total resource base of more than 40 trillion cubic feet of gas and an estimated economic life of at least 40 years, Gorgon will be a major contributor to our company’s future growth,” said Chevron Chairman Dave O’Reilly.

"Gorgon adds significant long-term reserves and production for Chevron, bolstering our strong resource replacement and underscoring the importance of Australia to our growing natural gas business,” said George Kirkland, executive vice president, Global Upstream and Gas, Chevron Corporation.

The Gorgon Project, operated by the Australian subsidiary of Chevron (50 percent¹) in joint venture with Australian subsidiaries of ExxonMobil (25 percent) and Shell (25 percent), is currently estimated to cost AU$43 billion (US$37 billion) for the first phase of development. First gas is planned for 2014.

The Greater Gorgon Area’s projected natural gas resources are equivalent to 6.7 billion barrels of oil. The project’s scope includes a three-train, 15 million-metric-ton-per-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility and a domestic gas plant.

The project underwent a rigorous and thorough environmental assessment that culminated with some of the most stringent conditions imposed on a major project anywhere in the world. The project is expected to have the world’s largest carbon dioxide injection system and be a global leader in underground carbon dioxide injection technology.

Chevron Corporation is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company's success is driven by the ingenuity and commitment of approximately 62,000 employees who operate across the energy spectrum. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and other energy products; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels and other renewables. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.

Notes to Editor:

¹ Chevron’s stake will change from 50 percent to 47.75 percent once relevant approvals have been obtained on equity agreements with Osaka Gas and Tokyo Gas. As stated in a Chevron news release dated September 9, 2009, Chevron will supply Osaka Gas 1.375 MTPA of LNG for 25 years. Osaka Gas will purchase 1.25 percent equity in the Gorgon Project. Tokyo Gas will be supplied 1.1 MTPA over 25 years and will purchase a 1 percent equity stake. Supply from both agreements is expected to commence in the second half of 2014.

Watch a Gorgon Project explainer on YouTube: http://bit.ly/dyJO

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT RELEVANT TO FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF "SAFE HARBOR” PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

This press release of Chevron Corporation contains forward-looking statements relating to Chevron’s operations in Australia that are based on management’s current expectations, estimates and projections about the petroleum, chemicals, and other energy-related industries. Words such as "anticipates,” "expects,” "intends,” "plans,” "targets,” "projects,” "believes,” "seeks,” "schedules,” "estimates,” "budgets,” "will supply,” "will be supplied” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond the company’s control and are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. The reader should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Unless legally required, Chevron undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are crude-oil and natural-gas prices; refining, marketing and chemicals margins; actions of competitors or regulators; the competitiveness of alternate-energy sources or product substitutes; technological developments; the inability or failure of the company’s joint-venture partners to fund their share of operations and development activities; the potential failure to achieve expected net production from existing and future crude-oil and natural-gas development projects; potential delays in the development, construction or start-up of planned projects; the potential disruption or interruption of the company’s operations due to war, accidents, political events, civil unrest, severe weather or crude-oil production quotas that might be imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC); the potential liability for remedial actions or assessments under existing or future environmental regulations and litigation; significant investment or product changes under existing or future environmental statutes, regulations and litigation; the potential liability resulting from pending or future litigation; the company’s acquisition or disposition of assets; government-mandated sales, divestitures, recapitalizations, industry-specific taxes, changes in fiscal terms or restrictions on scope of company operations; foreign-currency movements compared with the U.S. dollar (the U.S. dollar estimate of the cost of the project contained in this press release was based on the exchange rate at September 11, 2009, of $1 = 1.158 Australian dollars); the effects of changed accounting rules under generally accepted accounting principles promulgated by rule-setting bodies; and the factors set forth under the heading "Risk Factors” on pages 30 and 31 of the company’s 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition, such statements could be affected by general domestic and international economic and political conditions. Unpredictable or unknown factors not discussed in this press release could also have material adverse effects on forward-looking statements.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules permit oil and gas companies to disclose only proved reserves in their filings with the SEC. Certain terms, such as "total resource base,” "resource replacement,” "long-term reserves,” among others, may be used in this press release to describe certain oil and gas properties that are not permitted to be used in filings with the SEC.

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