The two fossil-fuel giants plan to spend most of their annual budgets in the Americas this year, with Chevron saying it will pour 70% of the capital allocated for production into oil fields in the U.S., Argentina and Canada, and Exxon saying it will spend a similar portion of its budget in the Permian Basin of New Mexico and West Texas, Guyana, Brazil and liquefied natural-gas projects.

Their focus on the Western Hemisphere is expected to continue for years as they give priority to growing shareholder returns and cut costly frontier drilling projects. Their retreat from places such as southeast Asia, West Africa, Russia and parts of Latin America—sometimes by choice, sometimes by fiat—marks an era of retrenchment for companies that had spent decades putting stakes in the ground around the world.

Exxon, Chevron Focus on Oil Projects in the Americas – WSJ