Chevron flies to Carlsbad the same week it cuts 200 West Texas workers

Chevron flew from Odessa, Texas, to Carlsbad, New Mexico, on June 11, a 45-minute hop that put the company's Boeing Business Jet (N884GL) on the edge of the Permian Basin. The flight arrived at Cavern City Air Terminal the same week Chevron began notifying 200 workers in Midland County of layoffs starting July 15, per a Texas Workforce Commission filing corrected from an initial 800-figure error, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.

The trip comes amid a broader reckoning for Chevron: CEO Mike Wirth warned in a May 6 CNBC interview that global oil supply could tighten further if the Strait of Hormuz disruption continues, with jet fuel prices already at "very high levels" in Asia and Europe. Chevron has six vessels stuck inside the strait and is refusing to pay Iranian tolls, Wirth confirmed in a Bloomberg interview this week, while the company accelerates pipeline bypass projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Recent flight patterns show Chevron's BBJ shuttling repeatedly between Houston and the Permian Basin — four round trips in the past three days alone — as the company adjusts global crude flows and trims its workforce. The Carlsbad landing suggests senior leadership is keeping close watch on operations in a basin that still anchors Chevron's domestic production, even as its headquarters now sits in Houston.