Chevron, the oil giant founded in California about 145 years ago, said Friday it will move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Houston.
The announcement, which also included news of a top management shakeup, did not come as a complete surprise given that the second-largest U.S. oil company, based in San Ramon, has been battling with California over its aggressive climate change policies.
Chevron, in its statement, said the move would allow the company to “co-locate with other senior leaders and enable better collaboration and engagement with executives, employees and business partners.” Chevron already has about 7,000 employees in the Houston area.
Chevron has about 2,000 employees in San Ramon. This is the latest high-profile departure of a California company to another state.
Elon Musk recently said he is moving SpaceX and SpaceX out of California and into Texas, and over the past decade there have been many other California companies in tech and other industries fleeing the state, with many attributing this to the state's high operating costs and other policies they feel are unsupportive of business.
Last fall, California sued Chevron and other major oil companies, alleging that their production and refining operations had caused billions of dollars in damages and that they misled the public by downplaying the risks of fossil fuels in global warming. Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth has rejected the suit and California's stance on climate change.
Wirth and Chevron Vice Chairman Mark Nelson will move to Houston before the end of the year. “The relocation will have minimal immediate impact on other employees currently working in San Ramon,” Chevron said in its statement. Some operations will remain in San Ramon, but the company said it expects all corporate functions to move to Houston within the next five years.
Chevron traces its founding to September 1879, when a group of explorers and traders established the Pacific Coast Oil Co.
The company currently operates crude oil fields, technical facilities and two refineries in California that supply more than 1,800 service stations in the state.
