Big reserves cut Chevron’s risk

Article Excerpt

CHEVRON CORP. $76 (New York symbol CVX; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $152.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; WSSF Rating: Above Average) is the second-largest integrated oil company in the U.S. by market cap, after Exxon-Mobil. Chevron gets about 85% of its earnings from producing oil. The remaining 15% comes from its refineries, its petrochemicals business and its 22,000 gasoline stations, which operate under the Chevron, Texaco and Caltex banners. Chevron has increased its oil and natural-gas reserves by roughly 1 billion barrels a year for the past seven years. At the end of 2008, it directly controlled 7.9 billion barrels, plus an additional 3.3 billion through joint ventures and affiliated businesses. The company produces about 920 million barrels a year. Rising reserves spurred growth Chevron’s focus on adding to its reserves has let it aggressively increase production. That’s mainly why the company’s earnings rose 85.8%, from $6.28 a share (or a total of $13.3 billion) in 2004…