The energy giant Chevron Corporation announced on Friday that they will be moving out of their headquarters to a new place within California while also shifting some employees to Texas sometime next year.
Chevron, which is headquartered in San Ramon, confirmed that it will stay within the city in it’s new space, saying that the real estate market right now is allowing them to adjust employees who work at the headquarters. Unlike previous big company shifts in California, such as Tesla and Oracle, the company will not be moving it’s headquarters out of state.
“The current real estate market provides the opportunity to right-size our office space to meet the requirements of our headquarters-based employee population,” said the company in a statement.
However, while the companies headquarters will not be loving out of state, a significant numbers of employees will, with many employees expected to make the move to the Texas Chevron offices in Houston sometime next year. While the exact number is unknown, Chevron will be paying moving costs for employees wanting to move. With Houston offering cheaper housing and lower taxes, many are expected to take the move away from the Bay Area.
With Houston being a hub for energy companies, Chevron would follow in the footsteps of ExxonMobil, who moved their headquarters from Dallas to Houston earlier this year by establishing a larger presence in the city. Chevron itself will be expanding inside the former Enron headquarters building in Houston.
“Like Tech companies going to Austin from the Bay Area, energy companies from all over are going to Houston,” explained San Francisco-based tech lawyer David Singth to the Globe on Friday. “This won’t be a full move, and is likely more in response to more people wanting to work from home more than anything else, but it does indeed add to the worrying trend of Californian businesses leaving the state. Leaders here don’t seem to realize just how devastating all these losses can be. It’s tax money from several sources being cut off, not to mention prestige, job opportunities, bringing in the best and brightest to the state, and more.
“A lot of people still try and come to California for a decent job, a decent living, and having a nice starter house, but in California, and especially the Bay Area, that is not the reality at this time. People have been bucking away from working here, and this Chevron move is just the latest indication that something is wrong in California.
“The state needs to be more business friendly, needs to reduce taxes, and bring back affordable homes for people to really reverse this trend, but nothing is really happening there. So tech companies continue to leave. Texas and working from home stole San Francisco’s “You have gotta be here to make it big” mentality, and now we see it seeping into other industries like energy. And you can bet Chevron won’t be the last one.”
Chevron is expected to finalize the moves sometime next year.