Chevron is moving its headquarters from California to Texas
Chevron Corporation announced Friday it would relocate its headquarters from San Ramon to Houston, Texas before the end of the year.
The oil giant has often been at odds with California state regulators and politicians over fossil fuels and climate change. Last year, the state sued U.S. oil companies including Chevron, the nation's second-largest, claiming they deceived the public about the risks of fossil fuels.
Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said the company differs from California on energy policy and regulation, leading it to depart from its California home of more than 140 years
"We believe California has a number of policies that raise costs, that hurt consumers, that discourage investment and ultimately we think that's not good for the economy in California and for consumers," Wirth told the Wall Street Journal.
Chevron has operated its headquarters from San Ramon, about 34 miles east of San Francisco in Contra Costa County, since 2002. It moved to the East Bay from its previous headquarters in San Francisco, where it had been located since 1879 with the incorporation of the Pacific Coast Oil Company.
Chevron will now be headquartered in Houston, where it already has several thousand employees. In 2022, Chevron sold its sprawling San Ramon campus and began moving workers to its Houston offices, saying at the time it would keep its headquarters in California.
The company issued a statement today saying the headquarters relocation would be completed before the end of 2024, "to co-locate with other senior leaders and enable better collaboration and engagement with executives, employees, and business partners."
"There will be minimal immediate relocation impacts to other employees currently based in San Ramon," said Chevron in a statement published on its website. "The company expects all corporate functions to migrate to Houston over the next five years. Positions in support of the company's California operations will remain in San Ramon."
Relocation follows Elon Musk announcement
The move follows other companies that have recently relocated their operations from California to Texas or announced plans for a move. Last month, Elon Musk announced he would move the headquarters of both his social media company X and space telecommunications firm SpaceX to Texas in response to a new California law banning school districts from requiring parents to be notified if their child asks to change their gender identification. Musk had previously moved his Tesla headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas in 2021.
Other companies that moved to Texas from California in recent years include Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Charles Schwab, and Toyota Motor North America, which moved from Torrance to Plano, Texas, near Dallas. A report earlier this year from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas says Texas is ranked No. 1 for net job gains from businesses relocating to the state from 2010 to 2019, with most of those jobs coming from California. More than 25,000 businesses and 281,000 jobs came to Texas, compared to some 18,000 businesses and 179,000 jobs that left the state, according to the report.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hailed Chevron's decision to relocate in a social media post.
"WELCOME HOME Chevron! Texas is your true home. Drill baby drill," Abbott said.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire's office said on X that the move is "Great for Houston!"
A move "foreshadowed" by Chevron
A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office told CBS News that Chevron's headquarters relocation was expected.
"This announcement is the logical culmination of a long process that has repeatedly been foreshadowed by Chevron," the spokesperson said. "We're proud of California's place as the leading creator of clean energy jobs — a critical part of our diverse, innovative, and vibrant economy."
Chevron said it has about 7,000 employees in the Houston area and approximately 2,000 employees in San Ramon. The company operates crude oil fields, technical facilities and two refineries and supplies more than 1,800 retail stations in California.
In 2012, an explosion and fire tore through Chevron's refinery in Richmond, California, sending thousands of people affected by the smoke to local hospitals. The company pleaded no contest to criminal charges related to the fire, agreed to submit to additional oversight, and agreed to pay $2 million in fines and restitution.
Richmond refinery issues
The Richmond refinery has been recently plagued by a series of flaring incidents and in February, Bay Area air quality regulators announced a pair of settlements with Chevron and another East Bay refinery to meet stricter emissions standards by 2026.
The city of Richmond has placed a measure on the November ballot that would tax Chevron $1 for each barrel of oil processed at its refinery there over the next 50 years if approved by voters. Proponents of the measure say it will help Richmond remedy the local effects of pollution from the refinery, the third-largest in the state. The Richmond City Council said the tax could generate as much as $90 million per year for the city.
Last month, a California jury returned a $63 million verdict against Chevron after finding it covered up a toxic chemical pit on land purchased by a man who built a house on it and was later diagnosed with blood cancer.
Reaction to the move
U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek, whose district includes San Ramon, said he was "disappointed, but not surprised, to see Chevron's announcement that it will be leaving San Ramon."
DeSaulnier said, "For years I have encouraged Chevron to be a diverse energy company investing in clean renewable sources of energy as we in California have been responsibly transitioning away from climate destroying energy and towards clean energy that protects the climate and public health. Unfortunately, these efforts have been much less successful than I had hoped and, in many ways, Chevron left California years ago."
The Bay Area Council, a regional business advocacy group, blamed local and state elected leaders for pushing companies like Chevron out of the area.
"They did that because it costs more money here, more litigation risk, HR risk, and a bunch of other factors that make California less attractive for doing business," said Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman.
Wunderman says he hopes the Richmond Refinery stays in operation. He says it has a positive economic impact and it supplies the region with petroleum.
"I don't know what this spells for the future of the refinery, but I think it's in our interest to keep the refinery open," he said.
Amanda Hari contributed to this story.
