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Chevron Corp. expects to write down as much as US$11 billion in the fourth quarter, more than half of it from its Appalachia natural gas assets after a slump in prices.

The U.S. oil major is considering the sale of its shale-gas holdings, along with its Kitimat liquefied natural gas project in Canada, according to a statement Tuesday. Chevron said it will keep its 2020 capital budget at US$20 billion, the third consecutive year it hasn’t boosted spending.

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The company’s actions come from a chief executive officer, Mike Wirth, whose mantra has been capital discipline. Wirth earlier this year earned US$1 billion for the company by walking away from a bidding war for Anadarko Petroleum Corp. San Ramon, California-based Chevron is the best performer among the five Western oil majors this year, but it has faced mounting costs at its Tengiz project in Kazakhstan.

Photo by Robin Rowland for National Post

“The Appalachia writedown should be baked in, but the others are incrementally negative” for the stock, said Muhammed Ghulam, a Houston-based analyst at Raymond James & Associates. “I would expect most companies to have to write down gas assets this year.”