Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. One of the successor companies of Standard Oil, it is headquartered in San Ramon, California, and active in more than 180 countries. Chevron is engaged in every aspect of the oil and natural gas industries, including hydrocarbon exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. It was also one of the Seven Sisters that dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s.
Chevron is one of the largest companies in the world and the second largest oil company in the United States, only behind ExxonMobil. As of August 2021, Chevron ranked 27th in the Fortune 500 with a yearly revenue of $94.7 billion and market valuation of $190 billion. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Chevron was ranked as the 61st-largest public company in the world.
Chevron's downstream operations manufacture and sell products such as fuels, lubricants, additives, and petrochemicals. The company's most significant areas of operations are the west coast of North America, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Southeast Asia, South Korea and Australia. In 2018, the company produced an average of 791,000 barrels of net oil-equivalent per day in United States.
Chevron has been subject to numerous controversies arising out of its activities, the most notable of which being related to its activities and inherited liabilities from its acquisition of Texaco in the Lago Agrio oil field, which include allegations of both Chevron and Texaco collectively dumping 18 billion tons of toxic waste and spilling 17 million gallons of petroleum. Chevron and Texaco's activities were the subject of a lawsuit Chevron lost to Ecuadorian residents defended in Ecuadorian court by Steven Donziger. Due to false accusations of Donziger bribing the Ecuadorian court and the subsequent disbarment and criminal contempt charges against Donziger, Chevron was accused by environmentalists and human rights groups of jailing Donziger and compelling the US government to deny Donziger due process of law.
Chevron has a crude refining capacity in the United States of approximately 1.0 million barrels per day. Refineries are in Richmond and El Segundo, California; North Salt Lake, Utah; Pasadena, Texas and Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Operations
As of December 31, 2018, Chevron had approximately 48,600 employees (including about 3,600 service station employees). Approximately 24,800 employees (including about 3,300 service station employees), or 51 percent, were employed in U.S. operations.
In October 2015, Chevron announced that it is cutting up to 7,000 jobs, or 11 percent of its workforce. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war, Chevron announced reductions of 10–15% of its workforce.
Headquarters
Chevron's corporate headquarters are located in a 92-acre campus in San Ramon, California. The company moved there in 2002 from its earlier headquarters at 555 Market Street in San Francisco, California, the city where it had been located since its inception in 1879. Chevron also operates from office towers in Houston, Texas, where it purchased 1500 Louisiana Street and 1400 Smith Street, the former headquarters of failed Texas energy giant Enron. Chevron is also planning a new office tower in downtown Houston next to its existing properties at 1600 Louisiana Street. The building will stand 50-stories and 832 feet. Upon completion, it will be the fourth tallest building in Houston and the first 50-story building constructed there in nearly 30 years.
United States refineriesU.S. Clean Air Act settlements following Hazardous Releases from Chevron Refineries
The United States Environmental Protection Agency, along with the United States Department of Justice, and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality came to a settlement with Chevron for safety improvements for all its refineries in the United States due to claims of provisions of the Clean Air Act being violated by releasing hazardous chemicals. The investigation by the EPA was initiated by a fire that occurred on August 6, 2012, that involved high-temperature hydrocarbons being released. During the investigation in 2013, two other hazardous chemical related incidents happened at separate refineries, including an explosion and a fire in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and a rupture in El Segundo, California. There were also claims made under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, and the Emergency Planning Community Right-to-Know Act, which were all resolved in the same settlement action. This lawsuit was the first time the United States and a state has partnered to enforce these acts. These settlements required improvements in refinery inspections and replacement of pipes at the Richmond, CA refinery, integrity operating windows, and better emergency prevention and response training for employees.
