Investment Team

The Chevron Technology Venture Investments team keeps abreast of developments across the entire technology spectrum. We understand the broad scope of Chevron's operations, and we work closely with our portfolio companies as promising ideas are transformed into full-fledged, sustainable businesses.

Located in San Ramon, California, and Houston, Texas, we screen more than 400 opportunities per year and manage more than $250 million in strategic investments.

Trond Unneland

Trond Unneland, Managing Executive

Trond Unneland has over 20 years of domestic and international experience in exploration, petroleum engineering, offshore oil production operations, information technology and venture capital.

Unneland began his professional career as a petroleum engineer with Statoil in Bergen, Norway, working in offshore oil production operations. After serving in various positions of increasing responsibility, he was then named vice president of information technology. Unneland joined Chevron in 2000 as technology account manager for Chevron Energy Technology Company. In 2004, he was named country manager for Chevron Denmark where he was responsible for leading all of the company's upstream operations. In 2006, he became country manager for Chevron Norway responsible for Chevron's upstream business. Unneland assumed his current position leading the venture capital team in 2007.

The author of numerous articles on reservoir management and well dynamics, Unneland has been cited as an expert source in more than 90 international technical papers. He has been recognized three times by the Society of Petroleum Engineers for his service to the organization. Unneland is a board observer on Southwest Windpower, DynaPump and BrightSource.

A native of Norway, Unneland has a Bachelor of Science in petroleum engineering and a Master of Science in reservoir engineering from Stavanger University. He later received his doctorate in technical sciences from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has served as a visiting scholar at Stanford University and has worked for the Norwegian industry attaché at the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in San Francisco, California.

Mike Brooks

Mike Brooks, Venture Executive

Mike Brooks has more than 25 years of experience in a wide range of areas including: chemical plant operations management; refinery planning and scheduling; distributed control and instrumentation project implementation; advanced control application development; as well as development of process information management systems and graphical user interface products. He also has 12-years experience with various software companies including director of products and technology at Wonderware. Brooks was also co-founder of INDX where he led marketing and product development efforts for the model-based visualization product that he invented. Brooks focuses on software architecture technologies to support operational activities for all Chevron refineries and the company's supply chain. Brooks is currently a board member for the Manufacturing Enterprise Systems Association and User Council chair of the OpenO&M initiative that drives interoperability standards for manufacturing.

Brooks earned a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Bradford University in the United Kingdom.

John Hanten

John Hanten, Venture Executive

John Hanten has more than 30 years of experience in the petroleum industry, primarily in upstream petroleum technology. Initially joining Chevron in 1978 as a research geophysicist, he has subsequently held varied supervisory and management positions of increasing responsibility in application development, technical services management, strategic planning, operational management and e-business development. In 1995, as strategic planning manager for Chevron Petroleum Technology Company, Hanten pioneered the internal use of web technology to streamline communications and other business processes. Most recently he was a senior consultant with Chevron e-Business Development Company working on new venture startups and internal Web initiatives.

Hanten has been active in industry standards and e-business initiatives and served as an elected board member of the Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation from 1999 to 2001 and chairman during 1999 and 2000. He participates as a board observer for Artificial Muscle, Axxon, BlueArc, Deepflex, Metacarta, OpenSpirit, Radiance Technologies, Schemalogic, SpectraSensors and Tradecapture.

Hanten earned a Bachelor of Arts in earth science from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Science in geophysics from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from St. Mary's College.

Don Riley

Don Riley, Venture Executive

Don Riley has more than 30 years of experience with Chevron. Early in his career, he led research efforts in advanced 3-D seismic processing and supercomputing technology at the company's La Habra, California, research laboratory. In 1999, Riley co-founded Chevron's first venture investment group, Chevron Technology Ventures, which developed a portfolio of investments in information technology, material science and biotechnology startups. Prior to that, Riley was chief geophysicist for Chevron U.S.A. and Chevron Canada, where he was also general manager for human resources. He is currently a board observer for Apprion, Codexis, Ember, FiveStar, Konarka, MicroFabrica, Microseismic, Moblize, Sicortex, Sub-One Technology, and Stingray Geophysical.

Riley received doctorate and master's degrees from Stanford University in geophysics and also holds a Bachelor of Science in geophysics from the University of Tulsa.

Matthew McElhattan

Matthew McElhattan, Principal

Matt McElhattan has more than 10 years of industrial experience serving in both technical and consultative capacities at small private companies and large public companies. Prior to joining the venture team, McElhattan worked for Chevron's Oronite division where he was responsible for the transfer of technical knowledge on Oronite's products to customers and employees. McElhattan was a management consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers' supply chain practice where he was involved in assessing and deploying Web-based supply-chain models and completing integrated supply-chain analysis for a variety of clients. Earlier McElhattan led market analysis and technology feasibility studies for Ducker Worldwide focusing on market size, configuration, target customers and applications for various industrial technologies. He was specifically focused on the introduction of new industrial motor technologies and supervisory control and data acquisition equipment which is a focus area for Chevron's operations.

McElhattan has a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Richard Pardoe

Richard Pardoe, Principal

Rich Pardoe has more than 20 years experience working in variety of technical industries. Prior to joining Chevron, he was the field manager for a small start-up company organizing field trials and gathering data. Pardoe joined Chevron as a process engineer supporting the sale of specialty catalysts for hydroprocessing units in Asia and Europe. Pardoe also participated in and led design teams for resid desulpherizers and hydrocracking units in Japan and Poland. Pardoe then moved to Chevron's Supply and Trading organization working on the scheduling and delivery of Chevron's California crude oil production as well as marine deliveries to Chevron's California refineries. Pardoe joined the company's venture capital group in 2006.

Pardoe has a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Colleen Mazza

Colleen Mazza, Business Support

Colleen Mazza joined Chevron Technology Ventures in 2002 as an administrative assistant. She provides administrative, planning and data management support and maintains back office systems and processes. In addition, Mazza acts as the principal administrative contact for portfolio companies and venture capital limited partnerships. Prior to joining Chevron, Mazza worked as an accounting analyst and an office manager.

Mazza has a Bachelor of Science in finance from Brigham Young University.

chevron oil investment

Oil

Providing Energy for Progress

The world has produced 1 trillion barrels of oil to date. Over the next century or so, approximately 2 trillion barrels more are expected to be produced from conventional proved reserves, unconventional resources and as-yet-undiscovered conventional oil. Even more will be produced by Chevron and others from unconventional oil resources, such as extra-heavy oil in Venezuela, bitumen in Alberta and shale oil in the United States.

Oil and petroleum products have powered the world in the form of motor fuels for more than a century, and demand continues to grow. Between now and 2030, global energy consumption is projected to jump more than 50 percent, with oil and gas, along with coal, continuing to meet the largest part of that demand.

What a Barrel of Crude Oil Makes

Oil is a key ingredient in making thousands of products that make our lives easier.

See the Products

*Includes both home heating oil and diesel fuel

**Heavy oils used as fuels in industry, marine transportation, and for electric power generation

Figures are based on average yields for U.S. refineries in 2005. One barrel contains 42 gallons of crude oil. The total volume of products made is 2.7 gallons greater than the original 42 gallons of crude oil. This represents "processing gain."

Source: API.org

What Chevron Is Doing

Chevron has an exceptionally strong portfolio, with key operations in important oil and gas regions. Combined assets give us a world-class position in resources, reserves and production.

We are the largest private producer of oil and gas in Kazakhstan and Thailand, and we are the top crude producer in Indonesia. In Australia, we are the largest leaseholder of undeveloped natural gas resources. We also are a top leaseholder in the Gulf of Mexico.

At the end of 2007, Chevron's worldwide net proved crude oil and natural gas reserves were 10.8 billion barrels of oil-equivalent. During the year, we produced 2.62 million barrels per day of oil-equivalent from more than 20 different countries around the world.

We maximize the value of our base business assets and keep our operations safe by applying technology in efficient, cost-effective and innovative ways. Whether setting a record depth for a well test in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico or enhancing the production of crude oil from a mature field, our cutting-edge technology enables us to bring new volumes of oil to the marketplace.

Developing Energy Sources Around the Globe

Chevron is aggressively capitalizing on recent discoveries. For the past six years, we have added an average of approximately 1 billion barrels of oil-equivalent per year to our resource base through our exploration program. We have about 40 major capital projects around the world with a net Chevron investment exceeding $1 billion each and more than 35 projects that exceed $200 million each. These projects are strategically located in regions with some of the greatest upstream growth potential in the world.

Africa

Angola LNG – The liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, in which Chevron has a 36.4 percent interest, will collect and transport natural gas located offshore Angola to an onshore liquefaction plant located in the country's Soyo region. The project is designed with the capacity to process 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day and produce approximately 5.2 million metric tons a year of LNG and related gas liquids products. First LNG production is anticipated in 2012.

Agbami Project, Nigeria – First production is slated for the third quarter of 2008. Maximum total daily production of approximately 250,000 barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids is anticipated within one year after startup.

Asia-Pacific

Tengiz Sour Gas Injection and Second Generation Plant, Kazakhstan – The first phase of these expansion projects occurred in 2007, increasing crude-oil production capacity by 90,000 barrels per day, to approximately 400,000. These projects are expected to have a total cost of about $7.2 billion and are designed to increase gross production capacity to 540,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second half of 2008. In addition, daily capacities of natural gas and natural liquids production are expected to increase to 760 million cubic feet and 46,000 barrels, respectively. Chevron holds a 50 percent interest in the project.

Chuandongbei Natural Gas Area, China – In 2007, Chevron signed a 30-year production-sharing contract for the development of the Chuandongbei natural gas area in the onshore Sichuan Basin. The area has an estimated resource base of 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Design capacity at the proposed gas plants is expected to be 740 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Chevron will take over the role of operator and hold a 49 percent interest in the project.

Greater Gorgon Area Development, Australia – Chevron holds significant equity interests in the large natural-gas resource of the Greater Gorgon Area, off the northwest coast of Australia. The company holds a 50 percent interest across most of the area and is the operator of the Gorgon development. The project's updated design includes plans for a three-train, 15 million-metric-ton-per-year LNG configuration.

South America

Frade Project, Brazil – Subsea installation activities began in early 2008 on this $2.8 billion deepwater project, our first offshore development in the country. Chevron holds a 51.7 percent operated interest in the project. Estimated maximum total daily production of 85,000 barrels of crude oil and 300 million cubic feet of natural gas is anticipated in 2011.

North America

Tahiti Deepwater Project, United States – The Tahiti field, discovered off the coast of Louisiana, is believed to be one of the Gulf of Mexico's largest deepwater discoveries, with potentially recoverable volumes of 400 million to 500 million oil-equivalent barrels. This $4.7 billion project is anticipated to create a peak production of 125,000 barrels of oil per day and 70 million cubic feet of natural gas. First oil is expected in 2009. Chevron holds a 58 percent operated interest.

Blind Faith Project, United States – Blind Faith is estimated to contain more than 100 million potentially recoverable oil-equivalent barrels and will be Chevron's deepest offshore producing facility. Chevron holds a 75 percent interest in and is the operator of the project.

Athabasca Oil Sands Expansion Project, Canada – This 100,000-barrel-per-day expansion is expected to increase the project's bitumen production capacity to more than 255,000 barrels per day in 2010. Extracted from the mined oil sands, bitumen¹ is upgraded into synthetic crude. Chevron is a 20 percent partner in the project.