ExxonMobil vs. Chevron: bigger reserves, more buybacks, and the $633 million of Chevron insider sales

ExxonMobil and Chevron are the two largest U.S. oil companies, and both had a strong twelve months: at the October 7, 2026 close, Exxon was up 43.6% and Chevron 32.4%. Exxon was worth $674.6 billion and Chevron $405.3 billion.

Production growth came largely from acquisitions

Exxon bought Pioneer Natural Resources on May 3, 2024, paying entirely in stock — 545 million new shares worth $63 billion. Its production rose from 3,738 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2023 to 4,333 in 2024 and 4,736 in 2025. Chevron bought Hess in July 2025 and says its 2025 production rose about 12% “mainly due to the acquisition of Hess”; it expects another 7% to 10% in 2026 with Hess for the full year. Chevron had also bought Noble Energy in 2020. By our math, Exxon’s reserves equal about 11.2 years of 2025 production and Chevron’s about 7.8.

2026: a disrupted oil market

Both companies refer to disruption in the Middle East in their 2026 reports. Exxon describes “Middle East disruptions”; Chevron reported production curtailed in the Partitioned Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and refining runs down 10% for lack of crude from the region. In the second quarter of 2026, Exxon earned $14.5 billion (+105%) and Chevron $12.1 billion (+385%). The first quarter had been weak at both because of accounting timing effects.

Earlier years with a footnote: in 2016 Chevron lost $0.5 billion while Exxon earned $7.8 billion; in 2020 both lost money, Exxon $22.4 billion including $20.3 billion of impairments and Chevron $5.5 billion; and 2022 was a record year for both, at $55.7 billion and $35.5 billion.

Dividends

Exxon says it “has grown its annual dividend-per-share for 43 consecutive years”; our count of annual totals by ex-dividend date shows 42 straight increases through 2025. Chevron’s 2026 raise was its 39th consecutive annual increase, which matches our count of 38 through 2025. Exxon raised its quarterly dividend 4% in late 2025, to $1.03; Chevron raised 4% in January 2026, to $1.78.

$1,000 over 5, 10 and 20 years

Exxon won the last five years and was ahead in 52 of the 60 months. Chevron won over ten years (ahead in all 120 months) and twenty years (233 of 240 months, the last change of lead in March 2009). The S&P 500 beat both over ten and twenty years.

Funds and insiders

Few of the 38 managers this site tracks hold either: seven held Exxon and eight Chevron at the end of June 2026. Berkshire Hathaway accounts for $14.0 billion of the $16.6 billion they hold in Chevron combined. It cut its stake from 130.2 million shares at the end of 2025 to 84.4 million in the first quarter of 2026 (−35%) and kept it there in the second; its peak was 165.4 million shares in late 2022. Since 2026 Berkshire’s chief executive has been Greg Abel, so the filing speaks for Berkshire Hathaway, not for Warren Buffett personally. Exxon’s holders are mostly quantitative and multi-strategy funds — Ken Griffin more than tripled his stake in the second quarter and Steve Cohen multiplied his roughly elevenfold — plus Tom Gayner. Since June 30, Exxon has risen 20.0% and Chevron 23.8%.

No insider bought either stock in the twelve months to October 7, 2026. At Exxon, a single vice president sold $2.4 million. At Chevron, insiders sold $632.7 million — $463.8 million without a 10b5-1 plan and $168.9 million under plans. More than half was John Hess, the former Hess chief executive who joined Chevron’s board with the deal: $349.6 million, through a trust of which he is a beneficiary and, in August 2026, after exercising old Hess options. Chief executive Mike Wirth sold $168.5 million, $103.9 million of it under plans; vice chairman Mark Nelson sold $34.2 million.

Two corporate notes from 2026: on July 1, ExxonMobil completed a reorganization in which each share was exchanged one for one, keeping the XOM ticker; and in October Chevron announced the sale of its stake in Hess Midstream and a management reshuffle for 2027. Daily data is on the ExxonMobil and Chevron pages. Not investment advice.