ALL ABOUT US

The Texas Fuel Company was not set up to drill wells or to produce crude oil. To accomplish this, Cullinan organized hi the Producers Oil Company in 1902 as a group of investors affiliated with The Texas Fuel Company. Men like John W. ("Bet A Million") Gates invested in "certificates of interest" to an amount of almost ninety thousand dollars. [2] Future restructuring would merge Producers Oil Company and The Texas Fuel Company as Texaco when the company needed additional funding which J.W. Gates provided in the amount of around $590,000.00 in return for company stock.For many years, Texaco was the only company selling gasoline under the same brand name in all 50 US states, as well as Canada, making it the most truly national brand among its competitors. It was also one of the Seven Sisters which dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. Its current logo features a white star in a red circle (a reference to the lone star of Texas), leading to the long-running advertising jingles "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star" and "Star of the American Road." [ citation needed ] The company was headquartered in Harrison, New York , nearWhite Plains , prior to the merger with Chevron. [ citation needed ]Texaco gasoline comes with Techron, an additive developed by Chevron, as of 2005, replacing the previous CleanSystem3. The Texaco brand is strong in the U.S., Latin America and West Africa. It has a presence in Europe as well; for example, it is a well-known retail brand in the UK, with around 850 Texaco-branded service stations. [3] [ citation needed ]History1901–38: Beginnings"The Texas Company" Galvestion station, c. 1910-20Texaco was founded in Beaumont, Texas as the Texas Fuel Company in 1902. [4] In 1905, it established an operation in Antwerp, Belgium , under the name Continental Petroleum Company, which it acquired control of in 1913. [5] The next year, Texaco moved to new offices in Houston on the corner of San Jacinto and Rusk. In 1928, Texaco became the first U.S. oil company to sell its gasoline nationwide under one single brand name in all 48 states. [6]Antique Texaco advertising, Gippsland Motor Garage, Old Gippstown Vintage Texaco petrol pump (1925)In 1931, Texaco purchased Indian Oil Company , based in Illinois. This expanded Texaco's refining and marketing base in the Midwest and also gave Texaco the rights to Indian's Havoline motor oil, which became a Texaco product. The next year, Texaco introduced Fire Chief gasoline nationwide, a so-called "super-octane" motor fuel touted as meeting or exceeding government standards for gasoline for fire engines and other emergency vehicles. [7] It was promoted through a radio program over NBC hosted by Ed Wynn, called the Texaco Fire Chief .1939 Texaco tanker truck by Dodge on display at the Henry Ford MuseumIn 1936, the Texas Corporation purchased theBarco oil concession in Colombia , and formed a joint venture with Socony-Vacuum, nowMobil , to develop it. Over the next three years the company engaged in a highly challenging project to drill wells and build a pipeline to the coast across mountains and then through uncharted swamps and jungles. [8] During this time, Texaco also illegally supplied the fascist Gen. Franco faction in Spanish Civil War , despite a federal fine, with a total 3,500,000 barrels (560,000 m 3 ) of oil. [9]Also in 1936, marketing operations east of Suez (including Asia, East Africa, and Australasia) were placed into a joint venture with Standard Oil Company of California – Socal ( Chevron ) under the brand name Caltex , in exchange for Socal placing its Bahrain refinery and Arabian oilfields into the venture. The next year, Texaco commissioned industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague to develop a modern service station design.In 1938, Texaco introduced Sky Chief gasoline, a premium fuel developed from the ground up as a high-octane gasoline rather than just an ethylized regular product. In 1939, Texaco became one of the first oil companies to introduce a "Registered Rest Room" program to ensure that restroom facilities at all Texaco stations nationwide maintained a standard level of cleanliness to the motoring public.1939–63: The Texas Company to Texaco, Inc.Historic route 66 in Dwight. Ambler's Texaco gasoline pumpAfter the onset of World War II in 1939, Texaco's CEO, Torkild Rieber , an admirer of Hitler, hired pro-Nazi assistants who cabled Berlin "coded information about ships leaving New York for Britain and what their cargoes were." This espionage easily enabled Hitler to destroy the ships. [10] In 1940, Rieber was forced to resign when his connections withGerman Nazism , and his illegal supply of oil to the fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War were made public by the Herald Tribune through information produced by British Security Coordination. [11][12][13] Life Magazine portrayed Rieber's resignation as unfair, advocating that he only dined with Westrick, and lent him a company car.A Texaco fuel dispenser in theUnited KingdomDuring the war, Texaco ranked 93rd among United States corporations in the value of military production contracts. [14] In 1947, Caltex expanded to include Texaco's European marketing operations. That same year, Texaco merged its British operation with Trinidad Leaseholds under the name Regent; it gained full control of Regent in 1956, [15] but the Regent brand remained in use until 1968-9. In 1954, the company added the detergent additive Petrox to its "Sky Chief" gasoline, which was also souped up with higher octane to meet the antiknock needs of new cars with high-compression engines. The next year, Texaco became the sole sponsor of The Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC-TV. In 1959, the Texas Company changed its corporate name to Texaco, Inc. to better reflect the value of the Texaco brand name, which represented the biggest selling gasoline brand in the U.S. and only marketer selling gasoline under one brand name in all 50 states. It also acquiredMcColl-Frontenac Oil Company Ltd. of Canada and changes its name to Texaco Canada Limited. [16] Around this time, Paragon Oil , a major fuel oil distribution company in the northeastern U.S, was acquired.1964–98: Various venturesTexaco gas pumps, Milford, Illinois 1977In 1964, Texaco introduced the "Matawan" service station design at a station in Matawan, New Jersey . [17] Two years later, Texaco replaced the long-running banjo sign with a new hexagon logo that had previously been test-marketed with the "Matawan" station design introduced two years earlier. The new logo featured a red outline with TEXACO in black bold lettering and a small banjo logo with a red star and green T at bottom. The following year, the Regent name was replaced by Texaco at British petrol stations. [18] In 1970, in response to increasingly stringent federal emission standards that would ultimately lead to the mandating of unleaded gasoline in 1975 and later-model cars and trucks, Texaco introduced lead-free Texaco as the first regular-octane lead-free gasoline at stations in the Los Angeles area and throughout Southern California . Lead-free Texaco became available nationwide in 1974. On November 20, 1980, the Lake Peigneur/Jefferson Island disaster occurred. Two years later, a new service station design was introduced. Several product names were also changed with the advent of self-service including Lead-free Texaco to Texaco Unleaded, Fire Chief to Texaco Regular, and Super Lead-free Sky Chief to Texaco Super Unleaded.In 1982, Texaco Canada Limited merged with Texaco Explorations Canada Limited to form Texaco Canada Incorporated, [16] with head offices in Toronto .Texaco fuel station in Poá ( São Paulo ), Brazil , 2009On November 19, 1985, Pennzoil won a US$10.53 billion verdict against Texaco in the largest civil verdict in US history. This was due to the fact that Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Gordon Getty . [19] In 1987, Texaco filed for bankruptcy. It was the largest in U.S. history until 2001. [20]In January 1989, Texaco and Saudi Aramco agreed to form a joint venture known as Star Enterprise in which Saudi Aramco would own a 50% share of Texaco's refining and marketing operations in the eastern U.S. and Gulf Coast. [21] In 1989, Texaco introduced System3 gasolines in all three grades of fuel, featuring the latest detergent additive technology to improve performance by reducing deposits that clog fuel injection systems. Toronto-based Texaco Canada Incorporated was sold to Imperial Oil with all Texaco Canada retail operations converted toEsso brand. Two years later, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts. [22] In 1991, non retail Canadian operations became Texaco Canada Petroleum Incorporated with head office in Calgary, Alberta . In 1993, several dozen tribal leaders and residents from theEcuadoran Amazon filed a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Texaco, as a result of massive ecological pollution of the area and rivers around Texaco's Ecuadorian offshore drilling sites, causing toxic contamination of approximately 30,000 residents. [23]In 1994, Texaco's System3 gasolines were replaced by new CleanSystem3 gasoline for improved engine performance. In 1995, Texaco merged its Danish and Norwegian downstream operations with those of Norsk Hydro under the new brand HydroTexaco. This joint venture was sold in 2007 to Norwegian retail interests as YX Energi , following the purchase of Hydro by Statoil. In 1996, Texaco paid over $170 million to settle racial discrimination lawsuits filed by black employees at the company. It was the largest racial discrimination lawsuit settlement in the U.S. at the time, and was particularly damaging to Texaco's public relations when tapes were released containingethnic slurs used repeatedly by company officers at high-level corporate meetings. [24]1999–present: Chevron CorporationA Texaco station in Lewisville, Texas , 2017In 1999, the company formed the joint venture Equilon with Shell Oil Company , combining their Western and Midwestern U.S. refining and marketing. [25] This gave rise to the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust case of Texaco Inc. v. Dagher, which cleared both Texaco and Shell of any antitrust liability concerning the pricing of Equilon's gasoline. That same year, another joint venture, Motiva Enterprises , was formed with Shell Oil Company and Saudi Aramco in which the Star Enterprise operations were merged with the Eastern and Gulf Coast U.S. refining and marketing operations of Shell. [25]Texaco station in Bebington , UK , 2018On February 8, 2002 Chevron Corporation merged with Texaco and Shell purchased Texaco's interest in the Equilon and Motiva joint ventures. [26][27] Shell began converting its Texaco stations to the Shell brand the next year. [28] In July 2004, Chevron regained non-exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S. [29] The following year, in August, Texaco introduced the Techron additive into its fuels in the U.S. and parts of Latin America. [30] In 2007, Delek Benelux took over marketing activities for Chevron in Benelux , including 869 filling stations, mostly under the Texaco brand. [31] Chevron Corporation also sold its Conoco stations in Mississippi to the Texaco brand name. "Texaco Canada Petroleum Incorporated" was dissolved in 2008 with Texaco exiting from the Canadian market. In 2010 Texaco ended retail operations in the Mid-Atlantic US, removing its brand from 450 stations in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C. [32]Corporate headquartersPrior to the merger, Texaco's headquarters, a 750,000-square-foot (70,000 m 2 ) building, were in Harrison, New York , near White Plains . [33][34][35] In 2002, Chevron sold the former Texaco headquarters to Morgan Stanley . Morgan Stanley bought the building and the surrounding 107 acres (0.43 km 2 ) for $42 million. [33]Texaco leased 14 floors of the Chrysler Building in Midtown Manhattan , New York City in the 1930s. As part of the leasing agreement with Texaco the building opened the Cloud Club , a restaurant area for executives. Texaco moved to Westchester County, New York , in 1977. This contributed to the closure of the Cloud Club in 1979. [36]In popular cultureA location was used in the opening scene ofCheech & Chong's Next Movie at 6407 West Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, where the main characters Cheech and Chong siphon gasoline from a tow truck . A Jack in the Box now stands at that location.In Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II, a Texaco station in the center of Hill Valley is shown in 1955, 1985, and 2015.In Stephen King 's science fiction short story " The Jaunt ", Texaco exists in the future and has shifted from selling oil to water.SponsorshipsRacing driver Nigel Mansell driving in the 1993 CART IndyCar World SeriesKenny Irwin Jr. driving in the 1998NASCAR Winston CupThe No.7 Eggenberger MotorsportFord Sierra RS500 of Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz. Eggenberger Motorsport won the 1987 WTCC Entrants ChampionshipTexaco is associated with the Havoline brand of motor oil and other automotive products. It was one of the sponsors of NASCAR with many drivers, such as Davey Allison , Ernie Irvan , Dale Jarrett ; Kenny Irwin, Jr. ; Ricky Rudd,Jamie McMurray , Casey Mears , and Juan Pablo Montoya.  .