Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Corporate Participants

Jake Spiering - General Manager, IR
Mike Wirth - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Eimear Bonner - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Sam Margolin - Wolfe Research
Neil Mehta - Goldman Sachs
Paul Cheng - Scotiabank
Betty Jiang - Barclays
Josh Silverstein - UBS
Biraj Borkhataria - RBC
Nitin Kumar - Mizuho
Jason Gabelman - TD Cowen
Bob Brackett - Bernstein Research
Roger Read - Wells Fargo
Lloyd Byrne - Jefferies
Devin McDermott - Morgan Stanley
Ryan Todd - Piper Sandler
John Royall - JPMorgan
Alastair Syme - Citi
Neal Dingmann - Truist

Operator

Good morning. My name is Katie, and I will be your conference facilitator today. Welcome to Chevron's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

I will now turn the conference call over to the General Manager of Investor Relations of Chevron Corporation, Mr. Jake Spiering. Please go ahead.

Jake Spiering

Thank you, Katie. Welcome to Chevron's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. I'm Jake Spiering, General Manager of Investor Relations. Our Chairman and CEO, Mike Wirth, and CFO, Eimear Bonner, are on the call with me today. We will refer to the slides and prepared remarks that are available on Chevron's website.

Before we begin, please be reminded that this presentation contains estimates, projections and other forward-looking statements. Reconciliation of non-GAAP measures can be found in the appendix of this presentation. Please review the cautionary statement on Slide 2.

Now I'll turn it over to Mike.

Mike Wirth

Thanks, Jake, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today.

Chevron continues to deliver strong operational performance, maintain cost and capital discipline and consistently return cash to shareholders. First quarter marked 9 consecutive quarters with adjusted earnings over $5 billion and adjusted ROCE above 12%.

During the quarter, we also returned $6 billion in cash to shareholders, the eighth straight quarter over $5 billion. We also grew production more than 10% from the same quarter last year and announced final investment decisions to grow our renewable fuels and hydrogen businesses.

Earlier this month, we announced our third Future Energy Fund focused on venture investments in lower-carbon technologies. The merger with Hess is advancing, and we intend to certify substantial compliance with the FTC second request in the coming weeks. We believe that a preemption right does not apply to this transaction and are confident this will be affirmed in arbitration. We expect the proxy for the Hess shareholder vote to be mailed in April with a special meeting date in late May. This strategic combination creates a premier energy company with world-class capabilities and assets to deliver superior shareholder value, and we look forward to bringing the two companies together.