Chevron completes $48 billion Tengiz oil field expansion as Trump pushes OPEC

(Bloomberg) – Chevron Corp. said Friday it completed an expansion at Kazakhstan’s huge Tengiz oil field, which is expected to pump 1 million barrels a day (bpd) by the middle of this year.

The expansion, costing $48 to $49 billion, comes as U.S. President Donald Trump this week said he’ll push the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which include Kazakhstan, to bring down oil prices.

“For OPEC, we’re going to follow whatever guidance the Republic of Kazakhstan provides us,” Chevron’s President of International Exploration and Production Clay Neff said in an interview.

Kazakhstan’s oil production plans have put pressure on OPEC+ partners, who have agreed to curtail output for much longer than expected. Central Asia’s largest producer has instead announced plans to raise oil output in 2025.

The work on expanding Tengiz, among the world’s biggest oil fields that represents about 1% of global production, has seen delays and cost overruns. Now, the field will generate $4 billion of free cash flow in 2025 for Chevron and $5 billion in 2026 at oil prices of $60, Neff said.

Most of the lighter-grade oil will go to Europe and Asia, he added. Tengiz currently produces about 700,000 barrels of crude per day.

Chevron “achieving this in January likely bodes well for the company, given the prior delays with the projects” in Kazakhstan, RBC Europe Ltd. analyst Biraj Borkhataria said in a note on Friday.

Tengiz is central to Chevron’s pledge to grow its global production, and the delays have weighed on the company’s stock.

Neff stressed the importance of the Kazakhstan asset in the upstream portfolio. With 1 million boed in 2025, it’s about the same as Chevron’s U.S. Permian Basin output, which is also expected to reach 1 million barrels a day this year

Chevron plans, however, to reduce its capital expenditures by about 10% in the Permian, which covers the region of West Texas and New Mexico.