Chevron Corp. said Tuesday it will reduce its workforce by 2,000 this year and cut the staff further in 2011 as part of an announced restructuring that will focus more on upstream operations and less on refining and marketing.

Chevron, which made the announcements at the company’s annual analyst meeting, also said it plans to take bids on some of its European assets, as well as properties in the Caribbean and some Central American countries.

“Chevron has held a long-term view favoring aggressive upstream investment, and the company is poised for another decade of upstream growth,” said Chevron CEO John Watson. “We expect a substantial production increase mid-decade as our portfolio shifts toward natural gas and Asia.”

Watson’s goal is to raise gas and oil production 1% this year from output at new wells in the Gulf of Mexico, Angola and Brazil. The San Ramon, CA-based major is spending almost $60 million a day to fund its exploration program, he said.

George Kirkland, executive vice president, Global Upstream and Gas, told analysts that the company’s oil and gas production increased 7% in 2009 because of the start-up of some big projects.

“This placed us first among competitors,” Kirkland said. “We added 1.1 billion bbl of net proved reserves, replacing 112% of our production. Over the past 10 years, our reserve replacement exceeds 100%.”

The environment for refining and marketing is expected to be challenging for the next several years.

“We intend to further concentrate our downstream portfolio in North America and Asia-Pacific,” said Mike Wirth, Chevron’s executive vice president for global downstream. “These are markets in which we have our greatest competitive strength.”

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