After 145 years in California, the second-biggest U.S. oil company, Chevron, is moving to Texas, the traditional home of America’s oil industry.
Chevron joins Tesla and HP, among hundreds more companies over the past decade, in relocating to the Lone Star State with relaxed climate policies and no corporation tax.
Chevron’s existing operations in Texas include upstream plays in the Permian Basin, refineries in Pasadena and Deer Park, where it produces base oil, and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. based in The Woodlands.
The announcement came shortly after the company reported in late July its second quarter net income of $4.4 billion, down from $6 billion in the same period of 2023. Unburdening itself from California’s 9% corporate tax rate could change this for 2025. The company will also be free of Californian legislation requiring large companies to file sustainability disclosures beginning from 2026.
Chevron’s current workforce of about 7,000 employees in Houston, Texas, will be joined by chief executive Mike Wirth and vice-chair Mark Nelson by the end of the year and another 2,000 people over the next five years.
The company and California’s state government have often been at loggerheads. Chevron was critical of the increasingly strict regulatory environment, while lawmakers in Sacramento alleged Chevron, and other oil companies, intentionally deceived consumers about climate change risk from fossil fuels extraction and passed a law to penalize them for price gouging.