Chevron relocating to Houston, never thought we would see this day.

Ag CPA said:

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Chevron relocating to Houston, never thought we would see this day.

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They just bought 77 acres in Bridgeland in the fall for a R&D facility. Wonder if this news adjusts the scope, or accelerates the development.

Time to bring back the Houston Oilers.

Ag CPA said:

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Chevron relocating to Houston, never thought we would see this day.

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Finally got tired of the political climate in California. I don't know why any corporation with options would choose CA as its headquarters

Aglaw97 said:

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Ag CPA said:

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Chevron relocating to Houston, never thought we would see this day.

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Finally got tired of the political climate in California. I don't know why any corporation with options would choose CA as its headquarters

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Weather, amenities, and wive's demands. Historically, if you're going to be a millionaire executive, California can't be beat. The California of Chevron's establishment in the late 1800s was basically setting up shop right outside the garden of eden. There's a lot of people who will talk about how even as late as the mid 1990s kids had idyllic upbringings out there.

Shoot, Exxon kept their Irving executive castle all the way up until a year or so ago for the same reasons: weather, amenities, and wives demands.

I think Chevron is the largest company moving from california and not choosing Austin or Dallas. You've got to really screw up as a state that it becomes untenable for even the most wealthy of a corporation's employees say 'I can't buy my way out of this mess-we're leaving.'

And Chevron has a significant amount of refining, production and other capital tied up in California so I always saw keeping the HQ there as a goodwill gesture to appease Sacramento; guess they are at the point that the benefits don't outweigh the costs anymore.

CivilEng08 said:

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I generally only browse this thread, but I was curious how much you guys pay attention to orphaned wells and some of the stuff going on in west Texas. It's certainly not a new thing with the Wink Sink(s), Bohemer Lake, FM1053 sinking not too far away, etc.

Leaving whether Sarah Stogner was a good RRC candidate or not out of the conversation, she's putting a lot of publicity on these legacy wells starting to let loose and cause all sorts of problems for ranchers who live in the region. She's not a well engineer, so she's not close to being correct 100% of the time, but she's also clearly put some effort into learning and continuing to learn. She's posted a couple of real doozies on linkedin this week.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stogner_firechristi-zombiewells-oilandgas-activity-7223003706521178112-Afog

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stogner_hirehawk-firechristi-zombiewells-activity-7225110668402647042-yXYD

Overall, it seems to be a combination of dozens of factors with injection, aged casing, and bad/lax cementing or P&A practices from 70-80 years ago being the main cuplrits. But then again, I'm not a reservior or well engineer either, so that's specifically what I was hoping to learn from you guys. Either way, it gives me a lot of concern about the potential implications of groundwater contamination and surface water contamination as these wells continue to age over the next 20/50/100 years without having a real maintenance plan like we would for dams, roads, and other infrastructure. Nothing's forever.

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I don't work west Texas any more but when I did one of my special projects was studying casing leaks in vertical wells of a large legacy asset. It was a huge mess. Repairing them even on relatively new and productive wells was a crapshoot. When you are going to plug a well, its obviously a little easier to address these issues because you don't need to have a functional wellbore when you're done, but I have no doubt that there are many "plugged" wells that haven't been looked at in a long time and are having communication between zones, or to surface. Operators are supposed to check casing pressure on P&A wells I think, but no idea if they really do or what the protocol is. The geology of the Permian (at least the Midland basin) makes it really tricky with the San Andres being a water disposal zone that is pretty much at capacity and above the modern day producing intervals.

If the industry cares to fight back at all at the narrative that we solely exist to rape and pillage the earth, I think it would behoove operators to take this seriously. I feel like a couple years ago during the heyday of ESG operators should have announced big projects to address the issue. They could have gotten out ahead of something that could hurt them down the road, and been rewarded by wall street who was eating that kind of stuff up at the time.

Ag CPA said:

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And Chevron has a significant amount of refining, production and other capital tied up in California so I always saw keeping the HQ there as a goodwill gesture to appease Sacramento; guess they are at the point that the benefits don't outweigh the costs anymore.

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I imagine part of the struggle with being out in California vs being in Texas with the rest of their US peers is when they have job openings they are forced to promote from within rather than look external as there isn't anyone else around to hire with O&G experience. Of course many of the roles at an HQ office require a skillset that can come from any industry (legal, accounting, project management), but I don't see the tech obsessed employee base jumping at the bit to apply for jobs at Chevron in the bay area and I doubt can just money whip anyone to consider them as they have to compete with the likes of Oracle, Apple, Google and so on for local talent. Politics or not, it just makes too much sense to finally rip off the bandaid and move to Houston. Exxon finally did it and they weren't even changing states.

Dan Scott said:

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If you're rich, California is awesome and if you're working at Chevron HQ you were doing well. Chevron was in a beautiful part of the state and now coming to Houston. I bet a lot aren't happy but with the pressure of cost cutting and seeing Exxon relocating just a year before, Chevron had no choice.

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None of this matters, California hates oil and gas and wanted it gone. The environment there is EXTREMELY anti-business and even more anti-oil and gas.

The fact that tech companies are leaving the state says everything you need to know. Chevron had no choice, it was either that or be fleeced into nothing.

CA passed a law last year that regulates profit margins of refiners. Marxist as hell, and the state deserves everything it gets.

Not to take things into too much of an abrupt turn.... But:

President Biden schedule tomorrow includes 11am call with the King of Jordan, and a 2:15pm Situation Room meeting with his national security team to discuss developments in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/myndmRtq7V

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) August 5, 2024

Expect **** to hit the fan tomorrow afternoon. Bullish oil

Caliber said:

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On the instability and recession fronts related to O&G engineering, Sidara is walking away from its offer to buy Wood Group (London based but large-ish Houston EPCm Company).

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Dubai-based Sidara said it is walking away from takeover talks "in light of rising geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty at this time".

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Last line is the best, "Also, we realized we were going to buy Wood Group. What were we thinking?"