Chevron swings to quarterly loss on $10 billion in charges

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Chevron Corp swung to a fourth-quarter loss on $10.4 billion in charges as it stepped up efforts to cull unprofitable assets amid weak oil and gas prices. The company, the second-largest U.S. oil producer, in December had warned it could take up to $11 billion in writedowns on properties that were no longer economic to produce oil and gas. The writedowns covered Appalachian shale gas properties, a proposed Canadian liquefied natural gas project and U.S. offshore field.Major..