Chevron

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Like its Big Oil peers, Chevron experienced some much-needed financial healing in 2021 thanks to a bounce-back in demand for its products and a resulting surge in hydrocarbon prices. For the full year, the oil and gas giant reported profits of $15.6 billion, compared with a $5.5 billion loss in 2020; it also climbed 11 rungs on the Fortune 500 ladder. But Chevron faced unrest among shareholders, as some rebuked the company for underdelivering on its climate change promises. At the company’s annual meeting in May 2021, 61% of shareholders voted in favor of requiring Chevron to cut its Scope 3 emissions. Investors also expressed unease with a growing number of court judgments against the company outside the U.S., whose total value one 2021 report put at $50 billion. Chevron plans to spend $15 billion on oil and gas projects in 2022, 20% more than in the previous year; but at the end of 2021, it also announced a goal of being operationally net zero by 2050.