Chevron Production Rises, Halting Two-Year Decline

April 9 (Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, said production headed for a quarterly gain for the first time since 2006 as new platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Africa began operation.

Chevron pumped the equivalent of 2.645 million barrels of crude a day during January and February, 1.8 percent more than the first-quarter 2008 average of 2.599 million a day, the San Ramon, California-based company said today in an interim report on its Web site.

Chief Executive Officer David O