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Chevron Corporation 2010 Supplement to the Annual Report 59
Technology Other Businesses
Technology
Chevron’s technology organization supports the company’s worldwide businesses by identifying and deploying technology solutions and
capabilities that differentiate business performance and create options for the future.
2010 Accomplishments
Upstream and Gas
• Deployed next-generation interpretation and earth modeling software frameworks across Chevron’s upstream business, enabling
a step change in productivity and decision quality in reservoir characterization and simulation.
• Tested a new modular and mobile seawater injection system for waterflooding marginal offshore oil reservoirs at high rates and
low cost.
• Progressed development of a single-trip multizone fracturing system that will provide significant savings in the company’s deepwater
completions.
• Deployed the heavy oil thermal component of the next-generation reservoir simulator in the Hamaca Field in Venezuela, the Wafra
Field in the Partitioned Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and the Duri Field in Indonesia.
• Delivered Upstream Workflow Transformation solutions that enable better and faster operating decisions via improved data usage and
automated workflows. Additional transformation solutions that added for well performance and waterflood management.
• Established a Machinery Support Center that enables experts to remotely monitor upstream rotating equipment and facilitate faster,
cost-effective responses to major equipment problems. As of early 2011, the center supports the company’s Angola operations, and
additional deployments are planned during the year.
• Commercialized Chevron’s patented LPG hydraulic fracturing technique, which offers an improved approach to enhancing production
of tight gas reservoirs.
• Patented, in partnership with Colorado State University, a technique using in-well fluorescent tracers to accurately measure subsur-
face hydrocarbon movement.
• Piloted autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) operations in the shallow water of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. AUVs could enhance moni-
toring of deepwater subsea systems and be used for intervention planning and in response to major incidents, including hurricanes.
• Developed and deployed a proprietary, advanced geographic modeling tool to significantly improve and standardize pipeline route
planning and economics.
• Commercialized new downhole communication technology that enables wireless transmission of well data.
Downstream
• Developed the next-generation Isodewaxing catalyst platform to achieve higher yields and improve product quality.
• Commercialized a new mid-distillate hydrocracking catalyst, ICR250, that is capable of processing a wide range of feedstocks,
including gas-to-liquids oils.
• Developed ZeolitePlus, a breakthrough technology that enables manufacturing of high-performance zeolite catalysts at much faster
throughput with fewer processing steps.
Information Technology
• Implemented interactive 3-D models to train operators of the Tahiti platform and the Agbami floating, production, storage and
offloading vessel. The training technique has been deployed to accelerate new facility commissioning, reduce downtime and have
a positive impact on safety.
• Completed successful laboratory tests on new fiber optic sensing technologies developed to improve operational efficiency in
refining, production and reservoir recovery.
Biofuels/Hydrogen
• Completed a pilot project that utilized Chevron’s hydroprocessing and Isodewaxing technologies to refine nonedible bio-oils into
renewable fuel that meets road diesel specifications.
• Concluded the multiyear hydrogen demonstration program successfully with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection. Safely completed decommissioning of four hydrogen refueling stations and transferred
one prototype station to a third party.
Emerging Energy
• Constructed and commissioned a 1-megawatt concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) solar facility on the tailing site of Chevron’s
molybdenum mine in Questa, New Mexico. The beneficial reuse project is one of the largest CPV solar installations in the world
and will be used to evaluate the benefits of emerging solar technology and applicability to other operations and properties.
• Constructed and commissioned a next-generation 740-kilowatt solar photovoltaic installation on a former refinery site in
Bakersfield, California. Seven solar panel technologies are being tested to establish the viability of these technologies for use
at other Chevron sites.
• Continued construction of a 29-megawatt solar-to-steam demonstration project in the San Joaquin Valley in California. This new
technology application is designed to use solar energy to produce steam for enhanced oil recovery.