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Chevron plans to move its headquarters from California to Texas, becoming the latest major company to leave the west coast state after complaining of excessive regulation.
The second-biggest US oil company said on Friday that relocating from the Californian city of San Ramon to Houston would “enable better collaboration and engagement with executives, employees, and business partners”.
Chief executive Mike Wirth would make the move by the end of the year, Chevron added.
In January, Chevron lashed out at what it described as an “increasingly harsh regulatory environment” in California and wrote down the value of its assets in the state.
Chevron already has significant operations in Houston, with about 7,000 employees in a city that dubs itself the “energy capital of the world”. There would be “minimal immediate relocation impacts” for its roughly 2,000 employees in San Ramon, the company said.
Texas has sought to attract companies with lower taxes and lighter regulation. More than 300 companies have moved to the state since 2015, helping to drive a boom that has turned the Lone Star into the eighth largest economy in the world — ahead of Canada, Italy and Russia.
Chevron will gradually move all corporate functions to Houston over the next five years with positions supporting its California operations remaining in San Ramon.