Energy · Profile from Energy Research Companion
Chevron
The second-largest US oil company, descended from the Pacific Coast Oil Company (1879) and Standard Oil of California ("Socal"), which won the 1933 Saudi concession that became Saudi Aramco. Chevron has grown mainly by acquisition — Gulf Oil (1984), Texaco (2001), Unocal (2005), Noble (2020), PDC (2023) and Hess (closed 18 July 2025) — and its defining capability is M&A as strategy: knowing when to pay and when to walk away (it collected a $1bn break fee after declining to outbid Occidental for Anadarko in 2019). It produced a record ~4.1m barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d) in Q3 2025 after Hess (reported), from the Permian, Kazakhstan's Tengiz, Australian LNG (Gorgon and Wheatstone), the eastern Mediterranean (Israel's Leviathan and Tamar), the US Gulf, Guyana (30% of Stabroek) and Venezuela, where it was the only US major still producing when the US removed Nicolás Maduro in January 2026 (reported). Its costliest episodes were legal and technical: an $18bn Ecuadorian judgment inherited from Texaco that US courts found was obtained by fraud (2014), cost overruns of ~US$17bn at Gorgon LNG, and a 21-month arbitration in which ExxonMobil tried to block the Hess deal.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1879 (Pacific Coast Oil Company); Standard Oil Company of California from 1906 (part of Standard Oil until 1911); Chevron Corporation from 1984
- Headquarters
- Houston, Texas (move announced 2 August 2024; executives relocated by end-2024; San Ramon, California kept as an office)
- Ownership / structure
- Public (NYSE: CVX); widely held, index funds largest; Berkshire Hathaway held a stake of ~6–7% at its peak (2023–24, reported, verify current)
- Leadership (2026)
- Mike Wirth (chairman and CEO since February 2018); Eimear Bonner (CFO since 2024); Mark Nelson (vice chairman); John Hess joined the board after the Hess deal closed (reported, verify)
- Segments
- Upstream; Downstream (refining, marketing, lubricants, renewable fuels); 50% of Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem, with Phillips 66)
- Scale
- Production ~3.3m boe/d (2024, company); record ~4.1m boe/d in Q3 2025 after Hess (company, reported); US output above 2m boe/d for five consecutive quarters to Q3 2026 (company 8-K)
- Profits
- Record ~$35.5bn net income in 2022 (company, verify); Q3 2026 net income ~$9.9bn, adjusted ~$10.4bn, ROCE ~18% (company 8-K, 30 Sep 2026 quarter)
- Reserves
- SEC proved reserves ~10–12bn boe before Hess (company 10-K, verify); Stabroek 30% of ~11bn boe gross discovered recoverable (resource, not proved)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Texaco (2001); Unocal and CNOOC (2005); staying in Venezuela (2007–26); Gorgon/Wheatstone LNG (FIDs 2009–11); the Ecuador judgment and RICO win (2011–14); Anadarko bid lost (2019); Noble (2020) and PDC (2023); Hess and the Stabroek arbitration (2023–25); the Houston move and cost cuts (2024–25)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2001
Texaco Merger
Acquisition or merger
2005
Unocal Acquisition and CNOOC
Acquisition (contested by a Chinese state-backed bidder)
2007
Venezuela Staying Under PDVSA
Sanctions or nationalisation: accepting minority stakes after a forced conversion, then operating under US sanctions licences
2009
Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG
Project final investment decision; construction overruns
2011
Ecuador Lago Agrio Judgment and RICO Win
Regulatory or legal action (defence against a foreign judgment and a US racketeering suit)
2019
Anadarko Bid Lost
Acquisition (abandoned after a rival bid)
2020
Noble and 2023 PDC Acquisitions
Acquisition or merger (two counter-cyclical stock deals)
2023
Hess Acquisition and Stabroek Arbitration
Acquisition or merger, delayed by a regulatory review and an arbitration over a pre-emption right
2024
HQ Move to Houston and Cost Cuts
Restructuring / strategy pivot (headquarters relocation, then a company-wide cost programme)