MTBE
Chevron and many other companies in the petroleum industry have used methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline additive. The company is a party to 88 lawsuits and claims, the majority of which involve numerous other petroleum marketers and refiners, related to the use of MTBE in certain oxygenated gasolines and the alleged seepages of MTBE into groundwater. Chevron has agreed in principle to a tentative settlement of 60 pending lawsuits and claims. The terms of this agreement, which must be approved by a number of parties, including the court, are confidential and not material to the company's results of operations, liquidity or financial position.
Resolution of remaining lawsuits and claims may ultimately require the company to correct or ameliorate the alleged effects on the environment of prior release of MTBE by the company or other parties. Additional lawsuits and claims related to the use of MTBE, including personal-injury claims, may be filed in the future. The tentative settlement of the referenced 60 lawsuits did not set any precedents related to standards of liability to be used to judge the merits of the claims, corrective measures required or monetary damages to be assessed for the remaining lawsuits and claims or future lawsuits and claims. As a result, the company's ultimate exposure related to pending lawsuits and claims is not currently determinable, but could be material to net income in any one period. The company no longer uses MTBE in the manufacture of gasoline in the United States.
RFG Patent
Fourteen purported class actions were brought by consumers of reformulated gasoline (RFG) alleging that Unocal misled the California Air Resources Board into adopting standards for composition of RFG that overlapped with Unocal's undisclosed and pending patents. Eleven lawsuits were consolidated in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, where a class action has been certified, and three were consolidated in a state court action. Unocal is alleged to have monopolized, conspired and engaged in unfair methods of competition, resulting in injury to consumers of RFG. Plaintiffs in both consolidated actions seek unspecified actual and punitive damages, attorneys' fees, and interest on behalf of an alleged class of consumers who purchased "summertime" RFG in California from January 1995 through August 2005. The parties have reached a tentative agreement to resolve all of the above matters in an amount that is not material to the company's results of operations, liquidity or financial position. The terms of this agreement are confidential and subject to further negotiation and approval, including by the courts.
Environmental
The company is subject to loss contingencies pursuant to environmental laws and regulations that in the future may require the company to take action to correct or ameliorate the effects on the environment of prior release of chemicals or petroleum substances, including MTBE, by the company or other parties. Such contingencies may exist for various sites, including, but not limited to, federal Superfund sites and analogous sites under state laws, refineries, crude oil fields, service stations, terminals, land development areas, and mining operations, whether operating, closed or divested. These future costs are not fully determinable due to such factors as the unknown magnitude of possible contamination, the unknown timing and extent of the corrective actions that may be required, the determination of the company's liability in proportion to other responsible parties, and the extent to which such costs are recoverable from third parties.
Although the company has provided for known environmental obligations that are probable and reasonably estimable, the amount of additional future costs may be material to results of operations in the period in which they are recognized. The company does not expect these costs will have a material effect on its consolidated financial position or liquidity. Also, the company does not believe its obligations to make such expenditures have had, or will have, any significant impact on the company's competitive position relative to other U.S. or international petroleum or chemical companies.
The following table displays the annual changes to the company's before-tax environmental remediation reserves, including those for federal Superfund sites and analogous sites under state laws.
| Millions of dollars |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
| Balance at January 1 |
$1,441 |
$1,469 |
$1,047 |
| Net Additions |
562 |
366 |
731 |
| Expenditures |
(464) |
(394) |
(309) |
| Balance at December 31 |
$1,539 |
$1,441 |
$1,469 |
Included in the $1,539 million year-end 2007 reserve balance were remediation activities of 240 sites for which the company had been identified as a potentially responsible party or otherwise involved in the remediation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or other regulatory agencies under the provisions of the federal Superfund law or analogous state laws. The company's remediation reserve for these sites at year-end 2007 was $123 million. The federal Superfund law and analogous state laws provide for joint and several liability for all responsible parties. Any future actions by the EPA or other regulatory agencies to require Chevron to assume other potentially responsible parties' costs at designated hazardous waste sites are not expected to have a material effect on the company's consolidated financial position or liquidity.
Of the remaining year-end 2007 environmental reserves balance of $1,416 million, $864 million related to approximately 2,000 sites for the company's U.S. downstream operations, including refineries and other plants, marketing locations (i.e., service stations and terminals) and pipelines. The remaining $552 million was associated with various sites in international downstream ($146 million), upstream ($267 million), chemicals ($105 million) and other ($34 million). Liabilities at all sites, whether operating, closed or divested, were primarily associated with the company's plans and activities to remediate soil or groundwater contamination or both. These and other activities include one or more of the following: site assessment; soil excavation; offsite disposal of contaminants; onsite containment, remediation and/or extraction of petroleum hydrocarbon liquid and vapor from soil; groundwater extraction and treatment; and monitoring of the natural attenuation of the contaminants.
The company manages environmental liabilities under specific sets of regulatory requirements, which in the United States include the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and various state or local regulations. No single remediation site at year-end 2007 had a recorded liability that was material to the company's financial position, results of operations or liquidity.
It is likely that the company will continue to incur additional liabilities, beyond those recorded, for environmental remediation relating to past operations. These future costs are not fully determinable due to such factors as the unknown magnitude of possible contamination, the unknown timing and extent of the corrective actions that may be required, the determination of the company's liability in proportion to other responsible parties, and the extent to which such costs are recoverable from third parties.
The company accounts for asset retirement obligations in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement (FASB) No. 143, Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations (FAS 143). Under FAS 143, the fair value of a liability for an asset retirement obligation is recorded when there is a legal obligation associated with the retirement of long-lived assets and the liability can be reasonably estimated. The liability balance of approximately $8.3 billion for asset retirement obligations at year-end 2007 related primarily to upstream and mining properties.
For the company's other ongoing operating assets, such as refineries and chemicals facilities, no provisions are made for exit or cleanup costs that may be required when such assets reach the end of their useful lives unless a decision to sell or otherwise abandon the facility has been made, as the indeterminate settlement dates for the asset retirements prevent estimation of the fair value of the asset retirement obligation.
Refer also to Note 23 related to FAS 143 and the company's adoption in 2005 of FASB Interpretation No. (FIN) 47, Accounting for Conditional Asset Retirement Obligations – An Interpretation of FASB Statement No. 143 (FIN 47), and the discussion of "Environmental Matters".
Income Taxes
The company calculates its income tax expense and liabilities quarterly. These liabilities generally are subject to audit and are not finalized with the individual taxing authorities until several years after the end of the annual period for which income taxes have been calculated. Refer to Note 15 for a discussion of the periods for which tax returns have been audited for the company's major tax jurisdictions and a discussion for all tax jurisdictions of the differences between the amount of tax benefits recognized in the financial statements and the amount taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. The company does not expect settlement of income tax liabilities associated with uncertain tax positions will have a material effect on its results of operations, consolidated financial position or liquidity.
Suspended Wells
The company suspends the costs of exploratory wells pending a final determination of the commercial potential of the related crude oil and natural gas fields. The ultimate disposition of these well costs is dependent on the results of future drilling activity or development decisions or both. At December 31, 2007, the company had approximately $1.7 billion of suspended exploratory wells included in properties, plant and equipment, an increase of $421 million from 2006 and an increase of $551 million from 2005.
The future trend of the company's exploration expenses can be affected by amounts associated with well write-offs, including wells that had been previously suspended pending determination as to whether the well had found reserves that could be classified as proved. The effect on exploration expenses in future periods of the $1.7 billion of suspended wells at year-end 2007 is uncertain pending future activities, including normal project evaluation and additional drilling.
Refer to Note 19 for additional discussion of suspended wells.
Equity Redetermination
For oil and gas producing operations, ownership agreements may provide for periodic reassessments of equity interests in estimated crude oil and natural gas reserves. These activities, individually or together, may result in gains or losses that could be material to earnings in any given period. One such equity redetermination process has been under way since 1996 for Chevron's interests in four producing zones at the Naval Petroleum Reserve at Elk Hills, California, for the time when the remaining interests in these zones were owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. A wide range remains for a possible net settlement amount for the four zones. For this range of settlement, Chevron estimates its maximum possible net before-tax liability at approximately $200 million, and the possible maximum net amount that could be owed to Chevron is estimated at about $150 million. The timing of the settlement and the exact amount within this range of estimates are uncertain.
Other Contingencies
Chevron receives claims from and submits claims to customers; trading partners; U.S. federal, state and local regulatory bodies; governments; contractors; insurers; and suppliers. The amounts of these claims, individually and in the aggregate, may be significant and take lengthy periods to resolve.
The company and its affiliates also continue to review and analyze their operations and may close, abandon, sell, exchange, acquire or restructure assets to achieve operational or strategic benefits and to improve competitiveness and profitability. These activities, individually or together, may result in gains or losses in future periods.