Affordable energy is a cornerstone of human progress and economic prosperity. We create value for our shareholders by providing that energy safely and reliably.
Many of our business operations involve risk, which we work tirelessly to mitigate. We use processes and tools guided by our Chevron Way values and designed with one goal in mind: zero incidents.
Over the past decade, our concerted efforts have helped us become an industry leader in safety. But, we're not yet incident-free. We work to learn from our incidents and those of others so that we can reach and maintain our goal of zero incidents. That is my personal commitment. And I know that the men and women of Chevron join me in committing to our world-class standards in Operational Excellence.
At the heart of our work is an ongoing focus on three areas critical to operating incident-free:
- Process safety – a system to help recognize and reduce risks, from the drawing board through daily operations;
- Environmental stewardship – our means of reducing our impact on our operating environments;
- Operational discipline – our approach to making certain that our employees and contractors perform every task the right way, every time.
Each falls under our Operational Excellence Management System, which guides how we manage risk throughout the company. I encourage you to read more about our approach to Operational Excellence in this report.
Managing risk well helps us maximize the value of the investments we make to find and produce energy. These investments are significant. Our capital and exploratory budget in 2012 is $32.7 billion, which will be invested in energy projects that will produce for decades, generate tax revenue, help create local jobs and support local businesses.
In addition to these direct economic benefits, we also make significant social investments in the communities where we operate. We apply the same fundamental approach to our social investments that we apply to our capital investments.
We work with our partners to identify and assess needs and to determine the scale and focus of investments. Our collaborative approach is rooted in business discipline and focused on outcomes. And our goal is to ensure that our social investments create measurable and enduring value, as they do in the case studies highlighted in this report.
Over the past six years, we've invested approximately $1 billion in areas essential to sustainable communities, including health, education and economic development.
It's a matter of pride for us that our 57,000 employees strive to make Chevron the partner of choice by providing energy the right way and remaining a force for shared progress and prosperity.
John S. Watson
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
May 2012