UPDATE 1-Chevron profits shadowed by human rights complaints

(Adds details on Texaco, paragraphs 7, 8)

By Amanda Beck

SAN RAMON, Calif., May 28 (Reuters) - Despite higher profits on record oil prices, the board of directors at Chevron Corp (CVX.N), the No. 2 U.S. petroleum producer, was lambasted at the company's annual meeting on Wednesday.

Shareholders and activists urged company officials to take responsibility for the environmental and human costs of oil production.

They harangued the board on a range of human rights abuses in such countries as Ecuador, Nigeria and Myanmar.

"You are here comfortably, while other people are dying ... Imagine if you were one of them," said Naw Musi, 30, a Myanmar refugee affiliated with Earth Rights International, a human rights group.

Chevron has a lucrative partnership with the Myanmar government but has not used its influence to demand the junta introduce human rights reforms or force the government to admit aid workers since the country's recent devastating cyclone, Musi said. The cyclone has left 134,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million destitute.

Speakers from other countries where Chevron has operations also fired a barrage of human rights complaints. Before the meeting, many had stood outside the company headquarters in San Ramon, California, near San Francisco, with 50 other protesters dressed in hazardous materials suits and holding signs that read, "Clean Up Chevron."

Chevron Chairman David O'Reilly sought to be conciliatory with several speakers from Ecuador, who urged the company to remediate areas of the Amazon where Texaco, later purchased by Chevron, dumped water that residents claim is toxic and linked to thousands of cancer cases.