chevron defended its new 75 billion share repurchase program from white house criticism friday as it reported record profits of 355 billion in 2022 the oil giant which also raised its dividend in wednesdays buyback announcement aims for stock purchases in a steady consistent way through the ups and downs on the commodity price cycle chief executive mike wirth said on a conference call with analysts us president joe biden has repeatedly criticized chevron and fellow petroleum behemoth exxonmobil over share buybacks arguing the companies should steer extra cash into new oil and gas investments in an effort to lower prices for consumers on wednesday white house spokesman abdullah hasan blasted the announcement as a 75 billion giveaway to executives and wealthy shareholders at a time when the company has claimed to be working to boost output he said on twitter asked about political backlash to the announcement wirth said the issue has been a touch overblown we werent trying to be splashy wirth said were just trying to indicate the confidence we have in our cash generation in all chevron returned 1125 billion to shareholders repurchasing nearly 70 million shares it said in an earnings release wirth said chevron increased its pace of buybacks three times in 2022 amid the cash deluge adding that the company could ramp up further in 2023 chevron has contested the biden administrations characterization of its strategy arguing that it is capable of both meaningful investment in production and generous givebacks to shareholders the company noted that it achieved record us oil and natural gas production in 2022 on the strength of a rampup in the permian basin in texas us production rose 37 percent in 2022 although international output fell by 72 percent from the 2021 level chevron reported fourthquarter profits of 64 billion up around 25 percent from the yearago period on revenues of 565 billion which was up 173 percent