david: this is my kitchen table and also my filing system. over much of the past three decades, i have been an investor. the highest calling of mankind i

have often thought was private equity and then i started interviewing. i learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. >> i asked him how much he wanted. he said 250. i said fine. i do not negotiate with them. i did no due diligence. dave: i have something i would like to sell. and how they stay there. you don't feel inadequate being the second wealthiest man in the world? is that right? david: about 40 years ago, a young college graduate going chevron, then and now one of the largest energy companies in the world. today my wirth is the ceo of chevron and dealing with renewable energy. i sat down with him to talk about what it is like to run chevron today in the current environment. so tell me about the state of the oil world right now. it seems as if the large oil companies or carbon energy

companies are doing quite well. they have record profits, record revenues. as a result of that, some people in the white house and other places have suggested a windfall profits tax. mike: well, it is a cyclical industry, david. we see prices go up and down. a windfall profits tax is not going to encourage more supply. it's not likely to reduce taxes. in fact it would do quite the opposite. president jimmy carter try to windfall profits tax in 1980. it was rescinded some years later. it didn't result in more investment, it resulted in less investment and less production. normally if you want less of something, you tend to put more taxes on it. if we want more energy production, putting taxes on energy production is probably not a good idea. david: do you find it and

uplifting experience to go to washington and talk to regulators? mike: uplifting is probably not the first word that comes to mind. there are detailed discussions and we need to help regulators understand the potential consequences of some of the things they consider. david: would you say that washington by and large doesn't understand the economics of the energy industry, or they could learn a little bit more than they know now? mike: people who sit in these roles have often broad responsibilities and they may not have personal expertise in depth in some of the areas they are responsible for. i job is to come in and try to provide objective input and help them understand the consequences of things they are considering to avoid unintended consequences and help achieve the goals they are looking to achieve. david: so when the president says energy companies are gouging the american people, you

get used to this when you are an energy executive more or less, i assume. you don't like it, but you're probably accepting of it? mike: i disagree with that characterization. i don't think that is accurate. prices go up and prices come down. we allocate millions of dollars, our company does, every year. just two years ago we were losing billions of dollars as prices plummeted. through the cycle, it is in industry that generates 10%-ish returns on capital deployed. i the standards of many other industries, that is a pretty modest return. david: the war in ukraine has driven oil prices up, i think it is fair to say. do you think that is a principal reason the major energy companies are doing quite well because the supply has been

reduced because of the war in ukraine? and do you think when that war does and it will have an impact on reducing energy prices in the carbon areas? mike: the war and the associated actions have definitely had an impact on energy markets. if you step back and look at the broader context, in 2020, we saw demand collapse with the pandemic when the world really locked down. companies in our industry had to shut wells and stop producing because there was no place to store the oil that wasn't needed by the market. so investment levels came down. and nobody knew how long this would last. as the economy recovered, post the pandemic, we had vaccines, demand return. the industry has been struggling to keep up with the rate of growth once again. so the market was already in a pretty tight situation before this war began. i do think when eventually it is resolved, and all conflicts

eventually are resolved, i think that uncertainty of the risk of supply from one of the world's largest suppliers will be reduced and i think we will see markets reflect that. david: a number of years ago, oil prices went as slow as i think $20 a barrel. when it was that low, major companies like chevron and others said we can't afford to drill anymore in alaska, the north sea, other places, because we need to have oil at $70 a barrel to make it affordable and profitable. as that come back, our people now joining major projects around the world to get oil that will take five or 10 years to build? or is that not happening again? mike: we are seeing some of that happening. what has changed in the last decade is what we see in the u.s. and the permian basin, and in other parts of this country and in other countries now. it is the ability to produce oil and gas from a rock that is very

dense, very hard, and historically has not been very productive. but with directional drilling and the ability to fracture these formations, we are seeing the ability to produce from areas that we couldn't before and it prices that are lower than some of these complex, difficult projects. so the need for the ultradeep water of the arctic has been reduced as we see these other resources come in at a lower cost. david: how many employees does chevron have? mike: about 36,000, in about 100 countries. david: how much oil do you produce a day? mike: mostly oil, some gas. we convert the units on gas, so about 3 million barrels a day. david: the u.s. produces 10 million barrels a day or something like that. mike: closer to 12. david: so you're producing about

25% of the oil produced in the united states. david: we are less than 10% of u.s. production. david: right now the united states is more or less energy sufficient compared to the 1960's or 1970's when we import a lot of oil. i think we produce and probably consume 10-12,000,000 barrels a day. mike: we consume 20 million barrels a day. david: so we are importing the equivalent of about 8 million barrels a day. where are we importing those from? mike: canada. our neighbors are the largest suppliers of oil. we are a big customer of canada, who is a large resource country. there are other pipelines that have been built in years gone by and sometimes it flows by rail. and some of it comes by ship. you can bring it down through

pipelines and ports on the west coast and the atlantic and bring it by ship. canada is a large supplier and we still bring some oil to this country from the middle east. david: there -- is there much oil to be found in the lower 48, mostly we know where all the oil is in there's no more big permian basin kind of deposits anywhere? mike: people have said that over time, and then we have always been surprised. the u.s. has been explored more than any other place in the world. the industry has a good idea, but technology allows you sometimes to recover things that you haven't been able to before. that is the story of shale. the other positive story is deepwater gulf of mexico. we will go out and drill in a mile or more of water depth and go down 6, 7, 8 miles into the earth and find large fields.

gulf of mexico is still relatively underexplored compared to the onshore. i think there is still room for more discoveries. david: so when you're starting 40 years ago, do you say some data might be the ceo, or did you not think that was realistic? mike: i just hope i would last the next two weeks to get my next paycheck. that was never in the game plan.

david: let's talk about chevron itself. when was chevron created? mike: founded in 1879 in southern california is a company called pacific coast oil company. may the first commercial discovery in california, in southern california. became part of the rockefeller's standard oil trust in the latter part of the 1800s, and then became standard oil california when the standard oil trust was broken up. our headquarters in home has always been in california. we've been around for 143 years and we made the first discovery in the middle east, first discovery of oil in saudi arabia, among other milestones. a long history of the world reflected in our company. david: if i go to a gas station

to get gas for my car, is there really difference between the oil that chevron may have produced, is that gasoline pretty much all the same? mike: there are minimum standards that have to be met from products. then what you find is that different companies either exceed those buy more or less than others, and also we have special additives. we have a wholly-owned additive company that manufactures and additive called tech ron to keep engine parts clean. as engines get more sophisticated, you can have carbon deposits that can affect performance in your cylinders, your injectors. tech ron klain set up at her than others. -- tech ron cleans that up better than others. david: let's talk about your own background. how does one become the ceo of chevron?

where were you born? mike: i was born in los alamo's, new mexico. i grew up in colorado. i went to university of colorado at boulder and studied chemical engineering. david: and you said i want to work in the energy world? mike: at the time, chemical engineers could work in a number of different industries. i worked in a refinery in the denver area and found the work and the people interesting. i had an offer to come to the west coast to work for standard of california and it looked like a fun place to live, and place where i could do interesting work. david: so basically this is your only employer since you graduated from college? mike: for 40 years, the only employer. david: when you started there, did you think i might be the ceo someday, or was that not realistic? david: mike: -- i was just

waiting two weeks for my next paycheck. that was not in the game plan. david: were you an operations person, and expiration or administrative person? mike: i started as a design engineer and worked on big projects. the other kind of oil shale use hear about. built a plant that you can't find any trace of today. worked on a facility in california to help bring in oil from offshore. sold it for pennies on the dollar, eventually a project in africa that never happened because of the civil war. so i began by special -- specializing in spectacularly unsuccessful projects. at some point i said this doesn't look like a great career path. so i moved into the marketing business where i built gas stations and replaced underground tanks made of steel with ones that would make -- were made of fiberglass and would not leak.

you and i remember the old clickety clack wheels that would spin around on the gas tank. i would put in the first electronic pumps back in the day. there were small projects, but i could see the beginning of the end. i began to understand how the commerce and business work. operating different roles across different businesses and around the world. david: we did you become the ceo? mike: five years ago, in 2018. david: a number of your predecessors have lived quite a while and some in the same area you live in now. do they call you with advice all the time? mike: i'm really fortunate, the three people who have done my job preceding me, each for roughly a decade. the 1990's, the 2000's, and the 20 teens, live within a few miles of where i live. i see them regularly. we have lunch together. david: do they tell you you are

doing this wrong or that wrong? mike: i get a lot of good advice. these are people who have actually done my job, so i am interested in their advice. they have lived through wars, the follow the soviet union, terrorist attacks, financial crises. they've seen oil markets go through gyrations. they have dealt with geopolitical surprises. so their advice is really valuable. during covid, the first thing i did was call each of them and ask what lessons they learned during the crisis they faced. how should i handle things as we have this pandemic unfolding? so we have a great relationship and i see them regularly. david: by my standards you're still very young. do you have any ambition to go into the federal government as a cabinet officer or anything like that? mike: no. david: do you have any other career ambitions, or this is what you want to do? mike: i love what i do and the

people i work with. i don't have any ambition to do anything other than a good job. david: what do you do for relaxation? mike: generally anything that involves family. i have four children who are active in outdoor activities. the wife is a good golfer and a good skier. so you will find me on the golf course, skiing, scuba diving, flyfishing, with family when i am not at work. david: are any of your children in the energy world? mike: no, not even close. david: if you have a low handicap, that is not good for a ceo because that means you're spending too much time on the golf course. are you a scratch handicap golfer? mike: far from it. i caddy for my wife in big tournaments. sometimes we will take a couple of vacation days and i carry her golf bags. that tells you who the better golfer is in our house. ♪

david: what are you most proud of having achieved so far? what is your record of accomplishment so far that you are most proud of? mike: the last five years have been interesting for people in any business. when the pandemic hit, we had people on ships, on offshore platforms, around the world, in developed countries and developing countries. navigating that, keeping people safe, keeping our business running and keeping the world supplied with energy has been no small task. it has been one of the most challenging things of ever confronted. during that same time, we've done a massive restructuring of our business. we've made acquisitions and integrated them to make the company stronger. i'm proud of the progress our people have made during this

challenging and tumultuous time. david: is this a career path you would recommend to young people? would you recommend this to young people? mike: there has never been a better time to come into the energy world. we are faced with this incredible challenge, meeting the demands of the world today and building a lower carbon energy system for tomorrow. the technology and innovation available to us is greater than has ever been. the chance to make a difference is enormous. if i were my younger self looking for a job, i would absolutely come into this industry. ♪

david: large carbon energy companies them to be having difficulty. are they producing large amounts of carbon energy, or are they supposed to transition to the renewable energy companies? what are you doing to transmission -- transition yourself to be a renewable energy company? mike: we are focusing our strings to deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world. in the near term, we are finding ways to reduce the greenhouse gas impact of the energy the world uses today. so we are reducing the emissions associated with oil and gas.

at the same time we are building new lower carbon energy businesses for tomorrow. things like renewable fuels, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, geothermal, or all technologies we are investing in an businesses we are growing that will play a bigger role tomorrow. there are many solutions. there is no one solution for this. david: in 2022, you bought a renewable energy company for roughly $3 billion. why did you want to do that? mike: we had a renewable fuels business ourselves. this company was one of the leading producers of biodiesel and soon to be renewable diesel in the united states. they have great capabilities in the feedstock sourcing area. in any fuels business, raw materials are a very important part of the overall value chain.

traditional petroleum products have deep expertise in raw material sourcing for that. you are talking about all materials light used cooking oil, distillers corn oil, various being oils, these are markets we don't have a lot of experience in. the quality, logistics, commercial dimensions of those markets are things we are good at. we have big market positions and brand positions in states like california that encourage this. the combination makes a more powerful renewable energy business. david: in the renewable area, which is a growth area, if you were going to make more acquisitions, without giving away inside information, are you likely to do more in the renewable area or in the carbon area? mike: it is an active field of opportunity in both. for us, it is really driven by

strategy, asset quality and value, the typical things we look at when we do a deal. over the last two years we've done a big traditional energy deal, we've done a renewable acquisition. in the years ahead we will probably do acquisitions in both of those spaces. david: when president nixon took after -- took office, shortly after there was an oil spill. then there was the oil spill in the gulf. how safe is it to avoid this kind of environmental damage? are there greater precautions 10 there used to be? mike: absolutely. the industry has continually improved operating practices, equipment, certainly the regulators in the u.s. have very high standards and work closely with the regulators on that. her technologies have continually made this safer. these are challenging difficult operations and those kinds of

pressures, water depths and environments, but the industry has a strong track record today and there have been some notable incidents over time. but every company in this industry works really hard to prevent those. david: today, do not worry about that kind of offshore issue because the safety is better than it used to be? mike: every day i get up and worry about safety and protecting the environment. it is a highly technical activity. we have very talented people and strict protocols and standards to keep people and the environment safe. but you can never take it for granted. david: why do you think it is that people of energy, but they don't love energy companies? people consume in norman's amounts of oil and gas and the people that provide it, like chevron, don't seem to be so popular. why is that? mike: i don't know exactly why it is. we are a big company, the

numbers are big. sometimes big isn't popular. big energy, big government, big tech. maybe be private equity is an exception to that. but we represent less than 2% of global oil production. it is a very competitive market and we are a relatively small player. what is important to remember is we need to have a balanced approach to energy. that means affordability. affordable energy is essential for economic prosperity. reliable supply and national security are linked. and then protecting the environment. as prices get high and it gets less affordable, you find people who are upset. part of that is because we really haven't necessarily been able to find the right balance among those three. david: to improve the overall

image of the energy industry, is there something the ceos of the companies can do to improve the image so that people walking down the street will say chevron has done a great job for america today. is that possible, or energy companies just don't have that public image that will be so good? mike: what would help is to engage in more balanced conversation about the benefits of energy. a lot of people have views on what some of the consequences are of the use of energy. but as you say, they have made advancements in the quality of life possible that we would not of imagined two centuries ago. i think as we go forward, it is absolutely likely that we find ways to meet the needs of a growing world and reduce the carbon impact. david: let's suppose tomorrow you decide to retire and do something else, what would you

say you have a cheese -- achieved as ceo of chevron that you are most proud of? mike: i would hope people would say he thought of others first. he strengthen the culture o our compan he kept people sved and made the company a better company h lt then he was when he started. ♪

>> japanese economic growth is expected to be around 1.6%, the fastest among g-7 nations. i know there are other factors

out there but we expect the economy is on a gradual upward trend this year. corporate performance is looking bright this year as well. we see corporate profits hitting a record this school year and the next. there's a strong possibility that the nikkei average will hit ¥33,000 this year. if some of the geopolitical risks, down. >> we expect high inflation and geopolitical risks to continue to impact our economy but we see inflation passing its peak eventually and the nikkei hitting ¥31,000 this year. given the negative economic growth expected in the u.s. and europe, the japanese economy will stand relatively well this year and the price increase rate will hit a peak by summer. >> the heads of some leading brokerages sharing their outlook for the economy. a lot of this comes down to what happens in the u.s.. then a snapshot of the buy and sell