Oil and gas giant Chevron Corp. said it’s selling its Bay Area headquarters and moving its employees to Houston as it pares down its office space.
Chevron (NYSE: CVS) is planning to sell its current East Bay headquarters in San Ramon and is offering to cover costs for employees who voluntarily opt to move to Houston, Texas, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The company said it’s now looking for a new, smaller space to lease in the Bay Area and expects to move from its existing headquarters in late 2023.
Chevron occupies the former Enron Corp. headquarters in Houston where it now employs about 6,000 people, approximately three times as many workers as in its San Ramon headquarters. Its Bay Area headquarters has been declining after the company began a reorganization in 2019.
Chevron has had its base in the Bay Area since the late 1800s. It moved hundreds of employees to San Ramon in 1999, and in 2001 made that the company’s headquarters.
Some of Chevron’s executives have wanted to move the company’s headquarters to Texas for a long time, according to the Wall Street Journal. But Chevron’s leadership has held off due to the company’s long history in California and its assets here, such as its Richmond refinery, which is one of the largest refineries on the West Coast.
Earlier this month, Chevron said it was scheduled to carry out multiunit maintenance at the Richmond refinery, which was expected to last for about a month. The work includes gasoline-making units.
The sale of Chevron’s nearly 100-acre campus in San Ramon will likely attract interest from life science space developers or those looking to build high-end apartments with retail space.