Chevron

Arabian Oil

In 1928, the company bought an oil concession in Bahrain from Gulf Oil, and struck oil in 1932. The company secured an oil concession in neighboring Saudi Arabia in 1932, forming California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc) to operate the concession. Casoc struck oil in 1938. Although the company was a major player in the oilfields of California, Texas, and the Gulf of Mexico, the Saudi Arabian fields remained the company's main source of crude oil until 1980. Socal did not have enough outlets to sell its Saudi Arabian oil so the company formed a joint marketing company with Texaco called Caltex.

In the late 1970s, Socal executives believed the long-term future for oil companies was bleak, but was slow to diversify into other businesses. The company launched an unsuccessful bid in 1979 for the mining company AMAX. A similar bid failed two years later. The company did, however, redefine itself as an energy company, diversifying into uranium mining among other things. The environmental legacy of the company's uranium milling activities at Panna Maria, Texas (1979–92) remains the subject of controversy. Local campaigners suggest the company used the site as an unlicensed radioactive waste dump.

In 1984 Socal merged with Gulf Oil, rescuing Gulf from a hostile takeover by T. Boone Pickens. The new company, Chevron, was criticized for maintaining operations in South Africa and Angola by both anti-apartheid activists and conservatives. Chevron also inherited Gulf Oil's operations in Nigeria. Like Shell, the other major operator in the area, Chevron has been accused of complicity in human rights violations. In May 1998, Chevron flew members of the Nigerian Navy and Mobile Police to protect one of its oil platforms in the Niger delta. Three days earlier, 121 protesters from local communities occupied the platform to protest against the environmental damage caused by the company's operations and the failure of the company to contribute to development in the Niger delta. The troops and the police shot at the protesters, killing two and wounding many more, while regaining control of the platform.

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