Chevron Corporation

The Chevron Corporation is headquartered in San Ramon, California and is active in more than 180 countries. In 2010 Chevron had revenues of 204 billion USD. Since 2005 it has been ranked as one of America’s five largest corporations by the fortune 500 and in 2011 was named the 16th largest publicly traded company in the world.

History

Like many of the large oil companies in the United States, Chevron was originally a derivative of Standard Oil. It was known as the Standard Oil Company of California after the breakup of the Standard Oil Company in 1911. It became one of the “seven sisters” that dominated the world oil industry in the early 20th century.

In 1933, Standard Oil of California was granted a concession by Saudi Arabia to look for oil. It was responsible for discovery of the world’s largest oil field, Ghawar, which is located in Saudi Arabia. It formed collaboration with the Saudi Arabian government that became known as the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO).

In 1984, Standard Oil of California merged with Gulf Oil to become the Chevron Corporation. In 2000, Chevron purchased Texaco to create the second largest oil company in the United States and the world’s fourth largest publicly traded oil company. It briefly took on the name of ChevronTexaco until 2005.

Resources and Industry Segment

As of 2010, Chevron had reserves of approximately 10.5 billion barrels of oil and daily production of 2.7 billion barrels. Chevron is a vertically integrated company, which means that it has holdings in industry segments that include upstream, downstream, and marine transport.

Chevron has invested heavily in large-scale solar production plants as well as biofuels. It owns controlling interest in two large generation facilities in California. It is currently investing 300 million USD per year into biofuels and has partnered with the U.S. Government to produce biofuels from algae for use in jets.

Revenue

In 2010 Chevron had revenues of 204 billion U.S. dollars and operating income of 32 billion USD. Its net income that same year was $19 billion. Chevron employs 62,000 people worldwide.

Environment

Chevron has been responsible for several major environmental disasters. One of the longest running occurred in Ecuador and lasted from 1972 to 1993. The company was charged by locals with releasing over 18 billion gallons of formation water into the rain forest without any remediation. Formation water is water but is produced along with crude oil and contains various contaminants and hydrocarbons. In 2011 a jury in Ecuador fined Chevron $8.6 billion for its pollution of the country’s Amazon region.

Chevron has been cited in the United States for violating the clean Air Act and also for pollution consisting of 11 million pounds of toxic material in Richmond California. Additionally, the company has faced criticism for its environmental practices in Angola and Bangladesh.