Corporate Venture Capital as a Conduit for Early Adoption of Emerging Technology: A Decade of Experience

Abstract

Summary A continuous challenge in the petroleum industry is to identify and rapidly implement new technologies into field operations to increase production, improve employee productivity, and lower costs. Utilizing new world-class technology is critical as the industry moves towards more complex environments. To support this trend, a Chevron corporate strategy is to leverage technology to deliver superior performance and growth. A range of suitable tools are available, such as internal R&D, joint ventures, and collaboration with academia and service companies. A less traditional method in the petroleum industry is to use corporate venture capital (VC) as a tool to gain access to world-class technology. This paper covers a decade of Chevron VC experience, including justification for corporate VC investments, how success is measured, financial and strategic yield, investment criteria, governance, partnerships, track record, and portfolio highlights. In this paper, several technology transfer success stories are given including the financial and operational value they created for the Chevron business units. The investments cover such diverse technology areas as artificial lift, seismic monitoring, deepwater technology, wind power, and high-end computing for reservoir simulation.