Chevron Corporation
Profile
Chevron is a fossil fuel company headquartered in San Ramon, California. It was founded in the 1870s as the Standard Oil Company of California and later acquired the assets of Texaco, another Standard Oil company. In 2011, courts in Ecuador ruled that the company should pay $9.5 billion for dumping an estimated 16 billion gallons of toxic waste and abandoning 1,000 waste pits at Texaco's Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador's Amazon, after Indigenous communities like the Cofán and the Shuar sued the company. Not only has the company has refused to pay up, it has aggressively pursued the activists who supported the lawsuit, like Steven Donziger, one of the main lawyers on the case. Chevron has also been accused of serious environmental and human rights abuse in the Niger Delta, notably for financing the mobile police, also known as the “kill and go” squad, who shot and killed two Ilaje ethnic protestors during an occupation of Chevron’s Parabe platform in 1998.
Iron ore, coal, petroleum, copper, natural gas, nickel & uranium
Violations
| Top 5 Offense Groups (Groups Defined) | Penalty Total | Number of Records |
|---|---|---|
| environment-related offenses | $717,639,828 | 367 |
| government-contracting-related offenses | $215,567,629 | 11 |
| financial offenses | $117,974,071 | 5 |
| competition-related offenses | $34,160,487 | 4 |
| employment-related offenses | $12,460,221 | 10 |
(September 29, 2022)
Stories
- Amazon Crude by Judith Kimerling (Natural Resources Defense Council, 1991)
- Contracting Out of Human Rights: The Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Project (Amnesty International, 2005)
- Dirty Profits 2: Report on Companies and Financial Institutions Benefiting from Violations of Human Rights (Facing Finance, 2013).
- Formative Years in the Far West: A History of Standard Oil Company of California and Predecessors Through 1919 by Gerald T. White (1962)
- How Chevron, Texaco and the Indonesian Government Structured Transactions to Avoid Billions in U.S. Income Taxes by Jeffrey D. Gramlich and James E. Wheeler (2003)
- Rainforest Catastrophe (Amazon Defense Coalition, 2006)
- Rights Violations in the Ecuadorian Amazon (Center for Economic and Social Rights, 1994)
- The Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win by Paul M. Barrett (2014).
- The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Made by Anthony Sampson (1975)
- Total Impact: The Human Rights, Environmental and Financial Impacts of Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Project in Military Ruled Burma (EarthRights International, 2008)
- True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report (Amazon Watch and others, 2009)
- Tyranny of Oil by Antonia Juhasz (HarperCollins, 2008)
Activism
Dozens protest in Richmond for Anti-Chevron Day
Amanda Hari | Kron4 | May 21, 2022
In the East Bay, dozens of people spent their afternoon outside the gates of the Chevron Richmond Refinery protesting. They say the big oil company has caused possibly irreversible environmental damage.
Chevron: Don’t drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Environment Maryland | April 14, 2022
n an effort to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is one of America’s greatest natural treasures, Environment America delivered petitions to Chevron on behalf of our supporters and Environmental Action, urging the oil company to commit to no future drilling in that awe-inspiring wild space.
Anti-Chevron Day Rallies Intergenerational Communities
Danielle Parenteau-Decker | Richmond Pulse | May 28, 2021
Hundreds of people showed up at the gates of the Richmond Chevron Refinery on May 21 to paint street art and protest the refinery’s presence.
Protesters demand Chevron suspend payments to Myanmar junta ahead of shareholder meeting
Myanmar Now | May 25, 2021
Protests against US oil giant Chevron were held in multiple locations on Friday and Saturday as part of “Anti-Chevron Day,” in the lead-up to the company’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
Anti-Myanmar coup protest planned at Chevron facility
Amanda Battersby | UpStream | April 14, 2021
Burmese nationals in the United States are stepping up to support the population back home in Myanmar where the military shows no sign of stopping its deadly crackdown against pro-democracy protesters following its February power grab.
Climate Activists Protest Outside Chevron Headquarters in San Ramon
Sharon Katsuda | NBC Bay Area | September 27, 2019
Hundreds of climate activists, including a number of students, protested outside Chevron's corporate headquarters in San Ramon Friday morning, demanding that the company stop using fossil fuels.
Thousands Protest Chevron Oil Refinery in Richmond, California
Madeline Ostrander | The Nation | August 5, 2013
Richmond, California is home to the Golden State’s single largest greenhouse-gas polluter, the Chevron oil refinery and some of the fiercest local environmental politics and activism anywhere in the country.
- West County Toxics Coalition (Richmond, CA)
- United Steelworkers
- True Cost of Chevron
- Rainforest Action Network
- Publish What You Pay
- Oxfam America
- Oil Change International
- International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM)
- EarthRights International
- Communities for a Better Environment
- Amazon Watch
& Lawsuits
Chevron hit with $85 mln lawsuit over gas deliveries during Texas freeze
Sebastien Malo | Reuters | July 12, 2021
A Texas natural gas marketer has sued a unit of Chevron USA Inc in Houston federal court, asking for nearly $85 million from the oil giant for failing to make natural gas deliveries during a deep freeze across the state in February.
Lawyer who sued Chevron over Ecuador pollution faces N.Y. contempt trial
Sebastien Malo | Reuters | May 10, 2021
A disbarred American lawyer who spent more than two decades battling Chevron Corp (CVX.N) over pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest attempted on Monday to fend off criminal contempt charges stemming from a lawsuit against him by the energy company.
U.S. Lawyer Steven Donziger Speaks from House Arrest in NYC After Suing Chevron for Amazon Oil Spills
Democracy Now | Amazon Watch | March 15, 2021
Decades of reckless oil drilling by Chevron have destroyed 1,700 square miles of land in the Ecuadorian Amazon, but the company has refused to pay for the damage or clean up the land despite losing a lawsuit ten years ago, when Ecuador's Supreme Court ordered the oil giant to pay $18 billion on behalf of 30,000 Amazonian Indigenous people.
AG Racine Sues Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell for Misleading Consumers About the Role Fossil Fuels Play in Climate Change
Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia | June 5, 2020
Attorney General Karl A. Racine today sued Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell for systematically and intentionally misleading District consumers about the role their products play in causing climate change.
Richmond v Chevron: the California city taking on its most powerful polluter
Susie Cagle | The Guardian | October 9, 2019
Local activists are suing the fossil fuel firms that gave the city life – but may also be slowly killing it
Criminal investigation at Chevron refinery
Jaxon Van Derbeken | SFGate | September 22, 2012
Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of Chevron after discovering that the company detoured pollutants around monitoring equipment at its Richmond refinery for four years and burned them off into the atmosphere, in possible violation of a federal court order, The Chronicle has learned.
Brazil Sues Chevron And Transocean For $11 Billion Over Oil Spill
Rainforest Action Network | December 14, 2011
This is huge: Brazil is suing Chevron and Transocean for $11 billion over their “lack of planning and environmental management.” The suit also seeks to suspend the companies from operating in the country. Brazilian officials obviously meant it when they vowed not to let Chevron get away with its environmental crimes:
Environmental Impacts
The West Texas Rancher Exposing Big Oil’s Buried Secrets
Russell Gold | Texas Monthly | July 2022
After an abandoned well began spewing toxic, salty water onto her Permian Basin land, Ashley Watt would stop at nothing to determine the cause—and to hold Chevron accountable.
A Leaking Roof During October Deluge Triggered Shutdowns at Chevron's Richmond Refinery
Ted Goldberg | KQED | February 4, 2022
Last October's prolonged heavy rain leaked through a roof into a key part of Chevron's Richmond refinery, leading to several days of pollution releases, according to reports the company recently filed with local regulators.
Chevron Says It Failed to Detect Pipeline Corrosion That Led to Bay Fuel Spill
Dan Brekke | KQED | October 27, 2021
Chevron says inspections at its Richmond refinery failed to detect corrosion on a pipeline that leaked hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel into the bay last February, a disclosure that one local official says shows the oil company's overall maintenance practices are inadequate to keep the oil-processing facility and the surrounding community safe.
8 Months After Chevron Oil Refinery Spill, Few Answers Surface About Cause
Ted Goldberg | KQED | October 21, 2021
In the eight months since hundreds of gallons of fuel from Chevron's Richmond oil refinery spilled into the bay, local air regulators and the state's workplace safety agency have issued a handful of violation notices against the oil giant.
Chevron Is Playing Americans for Fools with ‘Green’ Ad Blitz
Geoff Dembicki | Rolling Stone | October 11, 2021
One of the world’s top polluters of atmosphere-altering greenhouse gases has aired nearly 30,000 TV advertisements over the past 15 months, trying to convince people that it is green.
ExxonMobil and Chevron suffer shareholder rebellions over climate
Jillian Ambrose | The Guardian | May 26, 2021
US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron have suffered shareholder rebellions from climate activists and disgruntled institutional investors over their failure to set a strategy for a low-carbon future.
Why we’re holding Chevron accountable for its greenwashing campaigns
Raquel Dominguez | Earth Works | March 22, 2021
Earthworks, Greenpeace, and Global Witness have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking them to hold Chevron, the world’s second largest polluter, accountable for advertising itself as environmentally friendly.
Chevron Wins, But Ecuador's Amazon Remains an Unmitigated Environmental Disaster
Jason Koebler | Vice | August 9, 2016
One of the more complex and depressing legal sagas of the last several decades was dealt a severe blow Monday: A US appeals court ruled that Chevron will not have to pay a group of indigenous Ecuadorians $9.5 billion for environmental destruction related to oil drilling in the Lago Agrio area of the Amazon rainforest.
The Chevron incident: serious measures must be taken
World Wildlife Foundation | November 24, 2011
In addition to the thousand s of barrels of petroleum that are now polluting the ocean, degrading the environment and threatening the fishing economy, the Chevron incident has raised highly important questions that Brazil is still not prepared to face up to.
PERI Pollution Indexes
Based on United States Environmental Protection Agency data ranking the top 100 worst polluters.
& Relations
Hundreds of Chevron workers at California refinery go on strike
Dani Anguiano and agencies | The Guardian | March 21, 2022
Hundreds of Chevron workers in California went on strike Monday after the company and the United Steelworkers union failed to reach a contract agreement.
Unions accuse Chevron of failing to reinstate sacked Nigerian workers
Oluwakemi Adelagun | Premium Times | June 7, 2021
Two foremost Nigerian trade unions have accused Chevron Nigeria Limited of ignoring a 14-day ultimatum, last month, to reinstate three workers “unlawfully disengaged” at the behest of the American multinational.
Oil giant Chevron is cutting up to 15% of its workers and is requiring employees to reapply for jobs as it seeks to cut costs
Jennifer Hiller & Devika Krishna Kumar | Reuters | October 8, 2020
Chevron Corp employees worldwide are being asked to reapply for positions as part of a cost-cutting program expected to eliminate up to 15% of its workforce, people familiar with the matter said.
Workers protest at Chevron, say company plans sack of 600 Nigerians
Joshua Bassey | Business Day | Oct 2, 2020
Activities around the premises of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Ajah, Lagos, were on Friday morning disrupted as workers under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) staged a protest, accusing the oil company of planning to sack 600 Nigerians.
Chevron's Nigerian oil output threatened as workers strike
James Burgess | NewsDesk Nigeria | December 19, 2019
Senior Nigerian employees of US oil major Chevron have started strike action this week to protest against job cuts and non-payment of allowances, with the potential to disrupt the company's oil production, union officials said Thursday.
Chevron threatens to fire Bangladesh staff protesting asset sale: letter
Serajul Quadir | Reuters | May 23, 2017
U.S. oil company Chevron has threatened to fire staff protesting against the planned sale of its assets in Bangladesh to Chinese investors, according to a letter seen by Reuters, in a row that could delay the estimated $2 billion deal.
Financials
Note: Most recent list is not always the most complete list.
- Chevron Corporation Subsidiaries (via Fintel 2019)
- Chevron Corporation Subsidiaries (via U.S. SEC 2019)
- Chevron Corporation Subsidiaries (via U.S. SEC 2016)
Croctail Subsidiary Tool using the CorpWatch API - This API extracts the subsidiary relationship information from Exhibit 21 of companies' 10-K filings with the US SEC.
- CIK numbers link to SEC database (EDGAR)
- Section 21 links to SEC list of companies.
- Chevron Corporation Croctail
Click here for the latest list.
Political Influence
Open Secrets - Tracks corporate lobbying of US politicians.
OpenSecrets.org Profile of Chevron Corporation
Import & Export Data
ImportYeti - Shipping Tracking Tool - Bill of ladings are public information that are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.
- ImportYeti Profile of Chevron
& Evasion
Chevron Made $4.5 Billion in 2018. So Why Did the IRS Give Them a Refund?
Will Peischel | Mother Jones | January 3, 2020
In December, the non-partisan research group the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a report entitled, “Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law,” outlining the tax rates for 379 of America’s largest corporations in 2018.
Unions accuse Chevron of 'massive' tax avoidance via the Netherlands
Andy Deutsch | Reuters | October 9, 2018
International and Dutch unions filed a complaint with a global trade body on Tuesday accusing Chevron Corp. CVX.N of funneling billions of euros through letter box companies in the Netherlands to avoid taxation.
Tax Evasion in the Oil and Gas Industry
National Whistleblower Center | 2018
Chevron’s Gorgon gas project in Australia was supposed to generate enough tax revenue to facilitate personal tax cuts for every Australian. Instead, most of the profits were siphoned off into offshore tax havens.
US oil giant Chevron faces $300 million tax bill after ATO court victory
Stephen Long | ABC News | April 20, 2017
US oil and gas giant Chevron faces one of the largest tax bills in Australian history after failing to overturn a Federal Court judgement being pursued by the Australian Tax Office.
Chevron paid only $248 tax on $1.7b profit, Senate tax inquiry told
Neil Chenoweth | Australian Financial Review | November 8, 2015
Chevron's Greater Gorgon partners, ExxonMobil and Shell are also expected to appear before the Senate committee next week, as well as Uber and Airbnb.
Chevron Phillips Chemical to begin construction of 1-hexene plant in south Texas
Reuters | June 8, 2021
Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) is set to soon start construction of plant to turn ethylene into 1-hexene that will be located near its Sweeny facility southwest of Houston.
Chevron to buy Anadarko for $33 billion, boosting combined company's presence in Gulf
The Advocate | April 12, 2019
Chevron is buying Anadarko Petroleum for $33 billion, energizing its oil and gas drilling capabilities in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico while vaulting itself into a new league.
Procurement
Chevron Corporation contracts with the U.S. Federal Government (via USA Spending)