Letter from the Chairman – SPRING 2026

We all know there is no such thing as a free lunch, so we should have known that there would be a price to pay for the lovely summer last year! Here to the west of Aberdeen, firstly we were snowed in for 12 days from Hogmanay – and then it rained for about a month thereafter – and not just a little bit either! Our little stream was up and over the banks with widespread flooding everywhere across the Shire! But the daffodils are still coming up, so that is a definite plus!

We were very pleased to be awarded a pensions supplementation of 3% in December, backdated to 1 November 2025, very welcome indeed. However, from our estimates, we have been left some 12%+ behind all the inflation of last summer and autumn. Not good enough Chevron!

However, inflation in the UK continues around the 3% mark and we have already asked the Company for a further pension increase as soon as possible – the earliest would be after the appropriate Chevron Corporation Board Meeting on global pensions in September or October or even later in 2026. We feel this is necessary to keep abreast of the ‘cost of living’. crisis, that is still a major concern here to everyone.

Back in November, Neil Jones and I met with our new Professional Corporate Sole Trustee (PCST) for a cordial exchange of views, goals and objectives. We met with the principal and one of two team members assigned to the Chevron Trustee position. In response to their stated position of trying to obtain and work with information from as many sources as possible, we agreed to keep them advised on our future developments with the Company. Levels of communication under the new Trustee arrangement do remain an ongoing concern.

The Association has also been maintaining contact with Mr Ashley Sanders of Chevron in Canary Wharf, in London, our latest contact being a Zoom meeting in early March 2026. With the Aberdeen Chevron office now down to only about half a dozen people, some 250 people remain in the Westferry Circus office at Canary Wharf. The Association is doing its best to remain in touch with as many Chevron people as we can across the Company.

I would like to take this opportunity of sincerely thanking all those members who have written and continue to write to their MP on the pre- 1997 issue of discretionary payments, part of our consultation submission for the 2025 Pension Schemes Bill.

We have also raised the question of the Pension Plan surplus possibly being ‘stolen’ by the Company. There have been amendments raised on this Bill in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, but to date, there seems little likelihood of bringing about a change to the blinkered view put forward by the ‘Pensions Minister’ and the ‘Secretary of State for Work & Pensions’. A number of MP’s are also bringing forward an amendment with regard to the ability of Trustees to stand up against employers or maintain their obligations to the pensioners in their particular pension plan. The Association has written to the leading pensions authorities and also to the Pensions Regulator on these same subjects, stressing the need for these amendments to be included in the Bill.

Ed: The latest update can be read here

Meanwhile the CUKPA Committee is diligently working away on many different issues of interest to members. These include reviewing and updating the website, streamlining our IT processes, keeping up with our membership with first declining and then slightly-rising numbers, editing and producing our bi-annual newsletter, writing letters to the Company, answering queries from members and a myriad of other routine tasks, all very necessary to keep your Association doing what it says ‘on the tin’.

Incidentally, we need articles for the newsletters, please do not assume that somebody else will write the articles or nobody will. I might even have to write another article myself!

We have had a good year for meeting people and members. Back in the Autumn, I met with some 45 ex-Texaco heritage CUKPA members in Aberdeen and thank you to Alan Jones for organising this. I was able to share the latest pensions developments and answer questions. If you are an ex-Texaco heritage member, please do get in touch with Alan Jones (alanwjones36ATyahoo.co.uk), as he will be able to tell you when and where the next meeting will be. You could come along and join former colleagues for the morning.

(Email addresses have been altered to discourage ‘scraping’ by spam bots. SImply replace AT with the @ symbol. Ed)

At three monthly intervals I am indebted to Dave Armstrong for organising ex- Chevron heritage CUKPA members for meetings at the Justice Mill in Union Street, Aberdeen. Again, come along and meet up with some old friends. In mid-February, we had some 38 people join us for the afternoon. If you are interested, please do get in touch with Dave Armstrong (david.armstrong25ATgmail.com), for future dates. It is a really good and interesting afternoon and ANY Chevron pensioners would be made very welcome.

Three committee members also attended the London annual reunion in October, organised by Rod and Sue Pesch. This is always a most enjoyable networking event.

The date for our AGM is now fixed for 19 August at 11am at the Carpenters Arms, 12 Seymour Place, London, W1H 7NE. The Medical Society venue is unavailable during August. We are hoping that this will also be streamed online from wherever, so if you cannot join us in person, then do try to connect with us online. It will be from 1100 and will conclude before two o’clock.

We are also seeking any members out there who would be willing to help Andrew Nisbet with the computer side of our business. Andrew has a lot to do, with various projects in hand and the website to review and renew. If you have a little time to spare and can help, then please do get in touch on agnisbetATyahoo.co.uk This is definitely the computer side of the business, rather than writing pages for the website. (Primarily editing website pages according to instructions. Easy once you know how! Andrew)

I have left the worst topic until last! Membership Subscriptions! I regret to advise that we have found it necessary to increase our subscriptions to ensure we balance the books. As you will know only too well, the cost of everything has gone up over the last couple of years and our costs are no different. Even with more meetings online, the Committee do still need to convene periodically for strategic planning purposes. We have contained our costs at £15 pa and would ask your help in subscribing this amount for future membership costs.

Finally, thank you for your continuing support, we greatly appreciate it and will always do our best to be worthy of your confidence. Your committee is working extremely hard to ensure we keep our name to the forefront of Chevron’s mind, difficult though this is most of the time, as pensioners seem to be the last people on the Company’s totem pole, when it comes to ensuring their financial wellbeing. But we will keep on trying!

STOP PRESS Although the Government is still quoting 3% inflation for February/March, obviously the situation in the Middle East over the last month or so will have a huge effect on inflation. It will be into March and April, before these numbers make themselves fully known.