Good morning. My name is Jonathan, and I will be your conference facilitator today. Welcome to Chevron's 4th Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time.
As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference call over to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chevron Corporation, Mr. John Watson. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Jonathan, and welcome to everyone to Chevron's 4th quarter earnings conference call and webcast. On the call with me today are Pat Yerington, our Chief Financial Officer and Jeff Gustafson, who is our General Manager of Investor Relations. We'll refer to slides that are available on Chevron's website. Before we get started, please be reminded that this presentation contains estimates, projections and other forward looking statements. We ask that you review the detailed cautionary statement on slide 2.
Turning to slide 3. I want to begin by highlighting some of our strategic accomplishments for the year. We had our lowest ever days away from work rate continuing our improvement over several years now. We've been the industry leader on this metric since 2010. Our financial performance in 2013 was solid.
Once competition results are fully analyzed, we expect to once again post the highest upstream cash and earnings margins per barrel compared to a broad set of peer competitors. Our strong cash flows and balance sheet allowed us to fund our capital program and capture new resource opportunities, while maintaining competitive shareholder distributions. In our Downstream business, we started commercial operations of a 53,000 barrel per day vacuum gasoil FCC unit at the 50% owned Yeosu refinery in South Korea. We made significant progress on the construction of a 25,000 barrel per day premium base oil plant at the Pascagoula Mississippi refinery here in the U. S.
We expect to reach mechanical completions toward the end of the first quarter will then ramp up to full capacity during the Q2. In addition, we've also advanced our Oronite expansion project in Singapore. Our CPChem affiliate, our 50% owned chemicals joint venture announced final investment decision on a $6,000,000,000 U. S. Gulf Coast petrochemical project.
In our upstream business, we achieved startup and first shipment from Angola LNG. Production began at the Papatera project in Brazil. We also started up North Rankin II in Australia, which maintains production capacity at the Northwest Shelf LNG project. We made substantial progress on our major capital projects at the end of January. Gorgon is currently about 76% complete, while Wheatstone is about 27% complete.
Similar to prior quarters, we have posted a number of photos highlighting our construction projects on these two important facilities on our Chevron Investor webpage located at chevron.com. We also continued construction activities for our projects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The Jack St. Malo hull is now moored at its off shore location and is on schedule for start up later this year. Big Foot is expected to be towed to location in the Q3 with expected start up next year.
We reached final investment decision for the Alder developments in the U. K. North Sea as well as for Mohon Nord in the Republic of the Congo. We had a very busy year from a resource capture standpoint successfully acquiring an interest in a discovered resource opportunity in Argentina to develop and explore the Vaca Muerta shale and we also closed on our entry into the Kitimat LNG project in Western Canada where the resources will come from new positions in the Horn River and Liard basins. We acquired additional shale and tight resource acreage in the Cooper Basin in Australia and the Duvernay Basin in Canada, the Permian Basin in the U.
S. As well as in the Ukraine. We also grew exploration portfolio by acquiring positions in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Australia, Brazil, Morocco and in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Our 1 year reserve replacement was 85%, bringing our 3 year replacement ratio to 123%. We're proud of our performance this past year.
With that, I'll turn it over to Pat, who will take you through the financial results. Pat?
Thank you, John. Slide 4 provides an overview of our financial performance. The company's 4th quarter earnings were 4,900,000,000 or $2.57 per diluted share. For the year, earnings were $21,400,000,000 This equates to $11.09 per diluted share. Return on capital employed for the year was 13.5% and our debt ratio at year end was 12 2013 marked our 26th consecutive annual dividend increase with an 11% growth in the quarterly rate.
This demonstrates our confidence in our future performance and is consistent with our priority of rewarding shareholders with sustained and strong dividend growth. In the Q4, we repurchased $1,250,000,000 of our shares, bringing the full year share repurchase total to 5,000,000,000 dollars In the Q1 of 2014, we expect to repurchase the same amount. Finally, Chevron's 2013 total shareholder return was 19.2%. We continue to lead our peer group on total shareholder returns for the 3 year, 5 year and 10 year period. Turning to Slide 5.
Cash generated from operations was $10,500,000,000 during the 4th quarter. This was the strongest cash generation quarter of the year. For the full year, cash from operations totaled 35,000,000,000 dollars reflecting the continued cash generating strength of our portfolio. Cash capital expenditures were $11,600,000,000 during the quarter 38 $1,000,000,000 for the full year. We had a very successful year in our resource acquisition efforts as John just mentioned.
At year end, our cash balances totaled $16,500,000,000 giving us a net debt position of $4,000,000,000 The company continues to move towards a more traditional capital structure. Turning to Slide 6, I'll compare results for the Q4 2013 with the Q3 2013. As a reminder, our earnings release compares Q4 2013 with the same quarter a year ago. 4th quarter earnings were $4,900,000,000 $20,000,000 lower than the 3rd quarter results. Upstream earnings were down $240,000,000 reflecting lower liquids realization and higher exploration and operating expenses.
Partially offsetting were favorable foreign exchange movements of 490,000,000 Downstream results edged up $10,000,000 between quarters. Higher margins and favorable inventory effects were mostly offset by the absence of a favorable swing in corporate tax items during the quarter. On Slide 7, our U. S. Upstream earnings for the Q4 were $223,000,000 lower than 3rd quarter's results.
Lower realizations decreased earnings by $5,000,000 consistent with the decline in U. S. Crude oil price indicators. Lower production volumes reduced earnings by $35,000,000 mainly due to planned maintenance activity in the Gulf of Mexico and cold weather disruptions in the Mid Continent region. The other bar reflects a number of unrelated items, including higher operating expenses and unfavorable tax impacts, partially offset by lower exploration and DD and A expenses.
Turning to Slide 8. International Upstream results were just $17,000,000 lower than last quarter's results. Realizations decreased earnings by $60,000,000 consistent with the decline in Brent prices between quarters. Higher exploration expenses, mainly driven by the write off of an exploration well offshore Canada and higher geological and geophysical expenses across multiple areas decreased earnings by $190,000,000 A combination of higher operating expenses and DD and A lowered earnings $150,000,000 between periods. The other bar reflects a number of unrelated items including the absence of asset sale gains and favorable tax effects from the prior quarter.
A favorable swing in foreign currency effects increased earnings by 490,000,000 dollars The 4th quarter had a gain of about $300,000,000 compared to a loss of about $190,000,000 in the 3rd quarter. Slide 9 summarizes the quarterly change in Chevron's worldwide net oil equivalent production. Production declined 9,000 barrels a day between quarters. Our shale and tight assets contributed 7,000 barrels a day, mainly from new production in the Marcellus region in the U. S.
And Vaca Muerta in Argentina. External constraints lowered 4th quarter production by 12,000 barrels a day, reflecting lower demand in Thailand and in Bangladesh as well as weather related disruptions in the U. S. The base business and other bar includes the impact of normal field declines, which are partially offset by higher production from Agbami in Nigeria. Slide 10 compares full year 2013 net oil equivalent production to that of 2012.
Production declined by 13,000 barrels per day in 2013. Production averaged 2,600,000 barrels per day for the year, 98% of our original guidance. This was driven primarily by the slower ramp up at Angola LNG, more expensive turnaround activities and lower gas demand than anticipated in several countries. Base business declines and asset sales reduced production by 49,000 barrels per day between years. Our base business operations delivered strong performance for 2013.
Our base decline rate was lower than our target of 4%, providing significant barrels and value. Growing volumes from our shale and tight resources in the Permian and in the Marcellus regions in the U. S. Contributed 25,000 barrels per day. Our shale and tight production grew more than 15% in 2013.
Incremental production from capital projects contributed 11,000 barrels per day driven by the Angola LNG startup, first oil from Papatera in Brazil and the ramp up of production at the Usan field in Nigeria. Turning now to Slide 11. U. S. Downstream results were up $16,000,000 between periods.
Stronger margins increased earnings by $95,000,000 mainly due to lower crude costs. West Coast refining margins also benefited from the completion of planned maintenance activity in the Q3 at our El Segundo California refinery. Gains on asset sales contributed about $90,000,000 less in the 4th quarter than the 3rd quarter. The other bar reflects a number of unrelated items of smaller impact. On Slide 12, international downstream earnings were nearly flat between quarters.
Margins improved earnings by 20,000,000 dollars Higher refining margins in Canada on lower crude costs and improved marketing margins in Australia were partially offset by lower refining margins in Asia where we've seen weaker demand and ample supply. Higher operating expenses decreased earnings by $60,000,000 principally for maintenance, repairs and transportation. The other bar includes a number of unrelated items, including favorable year end LIFO impacts, partially offset by lower trading results and an unfavorable swing in foreign exchange impacts. Slide 13 covers all other. 4th quarter net charges were 312,000,000 dollars compared to $522,000,000 in the 3rd quarter, a decrease of $210,000,000 between periods.
A favorable swing in corporate tax items resulted in $162,000,000 benefit to earnings, while corporate costs were $48,000,000 lower this quarter. For the full year, this segment had net charges of $1,600,000,000 putting us in the lower end of our 400