Speaking to security analysts, Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) executives expressed confidence in the long-term outlook for the energy business, and outlined how it is responding the recent decline in oil and gas prices.

“The fundamentals of the oil and gas business remain attractive for our company and investors, as our products are vital to a growing world economy,” said John Watson, chairman and CEO of San Ramon-based Chevron.

George Kirkland, vice chairman and executive vice president, upstream, reviewed Chevron’s upstream performance, including its exploration and resource capture success over the past decade.

“This was the fifth consecutive year we have led the integrated peer group on earnings per barrel,” Kirkland said. “Our base business is performing exceptionally well and is profitable, even in a lower-price environment. Our large, diverse resource base allows us to be very responsive to market conditions, with flexibility to select only the most attractive opportunities to move forward.”

Jay Johnson, senior vice president, upstream, discussed specific actions Chevron is taking to manage capital outlays, lower costs and improve operating efficiencies. He also provided an update on Chevron’s queue of projects and future investment opportunities.

“We continue to make steady progress on our LNG and deepwater developments, and will continue to ramp-up production from our shale and tight assets, particularly from our very attractive Permian Basin acreage position,” Johnson said, adding, “We expect to achieve 20 percent production growth by 2017,” with the new production expected to have higher margins than in our existing portfolio.

Presentations and a transcript of the meeting is available on the Chevron website.