Texaco

For the novel by Patrick Chamoiseau, see Texaco (novel).
Not to be confused with Texico.
Texaco, Inc.
Independent company (1901–2000)
Subsidiary (2001–present)
Industry Oil and gas
Founded Beaumont, Texas, U.S.
1901 (1901)
Founders Joseph S. Cullinan
Thomas J. Donoghue
Walter Benona Sharp
Arnold Schlaet
Headquarters San Ramon, California, U.S.
Number of locations
 2,000+ (2006 estimate)[1]
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 John S. Watson (Chairman & CEO)
Products Petroleum, natural gas and other petrochemicals
Parent Chevron Corporation
Website texaco.com
chevronwithtechron.com

Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American oil subsidiary of Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an independent company until its refining operations merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to the Shell Oil Company. It began as the Texas Fuel Company, founded in 1901 in Beaumont, Texas, by Joseph S. Cullinan, Thomas J. Donoghue, Walter Benona Sharp, and Arnold Schlaet upon the discovery of oil at Spindletop.

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." The company was headquartered in Harrison, New York, near White Plains, prior to the merger with Chevron.

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 1,100 Texaco-branded service stations.

History

Gippsland Motor Garage, Old Gippstown, with 1930s Texaco gasoline pump and signage
Antique Texaco advertising, Gippsland Motor Garage, Old Gippstown

1901–38: Beginnings

1939 Texaco tanker truck by Dodge on display at the Henry Ford Museum.

Texaco was founded in Beaumont, Texas as the Texas Fuel Company in 1901. In 1905, it established an operation in Antwerp, Belgium, under the name Continental Petroleum Company, which it acquired control of in 1913.[2] 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 (50 states after Alaska and Hawaii joined the Union in 1959).

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.[3] It was promoted through a radio program over NBC hosted by Ed Wynn, called the Texaco Fire Chief.

In 1936, the Texas Corporation purchased the Barco oil concession in Colombia, and formed a joint venture with Socony-Vacuum, now Mobil, 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.[4] During this time, Texaco also illegally supplied the Nationalist faction in Spanish Civil War, despite a federal fine, with a total 3,500,000 barrels (560,000 m3) of oil.[5]

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.

A Texaco fuel station in Miami Beach, Florida
A Texaco fuel dispenser in United Kingdom

After the onset of World War II in 1939, Texaco's rogue 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.[6] In 1940, Rieber was forced to resign when his connections with German 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.[7][8][9] During the war, Texaco ranked 93rd among United States corporations in the value of military production contracts.[10] 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,[11] 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 acquired McColl-Frontenac Oil Company Ltd. of Canada and changes its name to Texaco Canada Limited.[12] Around this time, Paragon Oil, a major fuel oil distribution company in the northeastern U.S, was acquired.

1964–98: Various ventures

Texaco fuel station in Poá (São Paulo), Brazil

In 1964, Texaco introduced the "Matawan" service station design at a station in Matawan, New Jersey.[13] 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.[14] 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,[12] with head offices in Toronto.

Texaco station in Kendall, Washington

On 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. In 1987, Texaco filed for bankruptcy. It was the largest in U.S. history until 2001.[15]

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.[16] 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 to Esso brand. Two years later, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts.[17] 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 the Ecuadoran 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.[18]

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 containing ethnic slurs used repeatedly by company officers at high-level corporate meetings.

1999–present: Chevron Corporation

A Texaco station in Watauga, Texas, taken on 28 April 2016.

In 1999, the company formed the joint venture Equilon with Shell Oil Company, combining their Western and Midwestern U.S. refining and marketing.[19] 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, 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.[19] On February 8, 2002 Chevron Corporation merged with Texaco and Shell purchased Texaco's interest in the Equilon and Motiva joint ventures.[20] Shell began converting its Texaco stations to the Shell brand the next year.[21] In July 2004, Chevron regained non-exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S.[22] The following year, in August, Texaco introduced the Techron additive into its fuels in the U.S. and parts of Latin America.[23] In 2007, Delek Benelux took over marketing activities for Chevron in Benelux, including 869 filling stations, mostly under the Texaco brand.[24] 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, Chevron and Texaco ended retail operations in the Mid-Atlantic US, removing their brand from 1,100 stations in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and parts of Tennessee.[25]

Corporate headquarters

Prior to the merger, Texaco's headquarters, a 750,000-square-foot (70,000 m2) building, were in Harrison, New York, near White Plains.[26][27][28] In 2002, Chevron sold the former Texaco headquarters to Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley bought the building and the surrounding 107 acres (0.43 km2) for $42 million.[26]

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.[29]

A location was used in the opening scene of Cheech & 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.

Sponsorships

Racing driver Nigel Mansell driving in the 1993 CART IndyCar World Series
Kenny Irwin Jr. driving in the 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup
The No.7 Eggenberger Motorsport Ford Sierra RS500 of Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz. Eggenberger Motorsport won the 1987 WTCC Entrants Championship

Texaco 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. Texaco recently sponsored the #42 Dodge driven by Montoya. Havoline continuously sponsored a car from the early 1980s to 2008. At the end of the 2008 season, Texaco / Havoline officially ended their sponsorship with NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing. This brought to a close a 20+-year relationship with the sport.

Texaco has also been involved in open wheel racing, sponsoring the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston along with sponsoring drivers like Indianapolis 500 winner Mario Andretti and his son Michael.

In Formula One, Texaco sponsored the Team Lotus in 1972 and 1973, and McLaren from 1974 to 1978. The company returned to Grand Prix racing at a smaller scale in 1997, with their brands appearing on the Stewart SF01 car. Their association with the team and its successor, Jaguar Racing, continued until the end of 2001.

Texaco sponsored the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Rover Vitesse factory team at the 1985 and 1986 European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) under their Bastos brand, and the Ford Sierra RS500 factory cars entered by Eggenberger Motorsport in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship (plus the 1988 ETCC and other European based championships). Texaco also sponsored cars in the 1987 World Rally Championship.

From 1987-1993, Texaco was the major sponsor (through their Australian Caltex offshoot) Colin Bond Racing in Australian touring car racing, first with the Alfa Romeo 75 turbo in 1987, then the Ford Sierra RS500 from 1988-1992 and then Toyota's in 1993. From 2000 until 2007, it was title sponsor of Stone Brothers Racing with Russell Ingall winning the 2005 championship. In 2016, Caltex became title sponsor of the Triple Eight Race Engineering car of Craig Lowndes, having previously been an associate sponsor of the team.

Texaco was long associated with the Metropolitan Opera as sole sponsor of its radio broadcasts for 63 years. It was identified as well with such entertainment legends as Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Milton Berle (many of their shows were originally sponsored by Texaco – see Texaco Star Theatre, which includes the sponsorship lyrics of the opening theme: "We're the men of Texaco, We work from Maine to Mexico..."). Berle's program was broadcast in the same time slot as Fulton J. Sheen's religious program for a while, thus leading to Berle's oft-quoted quip, "We both have the same boss – Sky Chief!"

From 1984 to 1998, Texaco were the title sponsors of the main One Day International cricket tournament in England, the Texaco Trophy. It also sponsored the Texaco Cup, a football tournament for clubs of the British Isles.

Environmental issues

Main article: Lago Agrio oil field

From 1965–1993, Texaco participated in a consortium to develop the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador. It has been accused of extensive environmental damage from these operations, and faces legal claims from both private plaintiffs and the government of Ecuador. The case has been widely publicized by environmental activists and is the subject of Crude, a 2009 documentary film by Joe Berlinger. Chevron claims that it is being unfairly targeted as a deep pocket defendant, when the actual responsibility lies with the government and its national oil company.

The NiMH chemistry used in modern hybrid vehicles was invented by ECD Ovonics founder, Stan Ovshinksy, and Dr. Masahiko Oshitani of the Yuasa Company[30][31] In 1994, General Motors acquired a controlling interest in Ovonics's battery development and manufacturing. On October 10, 2001, Texaco purchased GM's share in GM Ovonics, and Chevron completed its acquisition of Texaco six days later. In 2003, Texaco Ovonics Battery Systems was restructured into Cobasys, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics.[32] Chevron's influence over Cobasys extends beyond a strict 50/50 joint venture. Chevron holds a 19.99% interest in ECD Ovonics.[33] In addition, Chevron maintains the right to seize all of Cobasys' intellectual property rights in the event that ECD Ovonics does not fulfill its contractual obligations.[34] On September 10, 2007, Chevron filed a legal claim that ECD Ovonics has not fulfilled its obligations. ECD Ovonics disputes this claim.[35] Since that time, the arbitration hearing was repeatedly suspended while the parties negotiate with an unknown prospective buyer. No agreement has been reached with the potential buyer.[36] Cobasys's patents relating to NiMH batteries expire in 2015.

In Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, published in February 2007, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries are commercially viable but that Cobasys refuses to sell or license them to small companies or individuals.[37] Boschert argues that Cobasys accepts only very large orders for these batteries. When Boschert conducted her research, major auto makers showed little interest in large orders for large-format NiMH batteries. However, Toyota employees complained about the difficulty in getting smaller orders of large format NiMH batteries to service the existing 825 RAV-4EVs. Because no other companies were willing to make large orders, Cobasys was not manufacturing nor licensing any large format NiMH battery technology for automotive purposes. Boschert concludes that "it's possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it's possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles."[38]

In an interview with the Economist, Ovshinsky subscribed to the former view. "I think we at ECD we made a mistake of having a joint venture with an oil company, frankly speaking. And I think it’s not a good idea to go into business with somebody whose strategies would put you out of business, rather than building the business.[39]"

In December 2006, Cobasys and General Motors announced that they had signed a contract under which Cobasys provides NiMH batteries for the Saturn Aura hybrid sedan.[40] In March 2007, GM announced that it would use Cobasys NiMH batteries in the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid as well.

In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services, Inc. and Innovative Transportation Systems AG filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for refusing to fill a large, previously agreed-upon order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the electric Innovan.[36]

In August 2008, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. filed suit against Cobasys claiming that Cobasys isn’t delivering the batteries it agreed to build for Mercedes-Benz’s planned hybrid SUV.[41]

Cobasys was sold[42] in 2009 to SB Li Motive, which is a joint venture formed by Bosch and Samsung to develop lithium ion batteries for automotive applications. The sale price was not disclosed. The German-Korean company will integrate Cobasys as the North American branch of the company. Cobasys will supply batteries to the new Mercedes ML450 hybrid.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "History of Texaco - Texaco With Techron".
  2. ↑ News of the Week: Union Oil of Delaware, Business Digest and Investment Weekly, Volume 26, Issue 5, Arthur Fremont Rider (editor), 1920, p. 95 (retrieved August 2, 2010 from Google Books)
  3. ↑ "Depend on the Gasoline Fire Engines Depend On! Texaco Fire Chief Super-Octane Gasoline," Albany Democrat-Herald, May 27, 1932, pg. 4. (Ad.)
  4. ↑ "U.S. Business Opens the Great New Barco Oil Fields in Colombia". LIFE. Time Inc. 7 (20): 15ff. 1939-11-13. ISSN 0024-3019. Retrieved 2013-07-24.
  5. ↑ Tierney, Dominic (2007). "American Men, American Oil, American Arms". FDR and the Spanish Civil War: neutrality and commitment in the struggle that divided America. Duke University Press. p. 68. Retrieved June 11, 2010.
  6. ↑ "‘Spain in Our Hearts,’ by Adam Hochschild," Book Review by Michael Kazin, New York Times, March 29, 2016.
  7. ↑ Dominic Tierney (2007). FDR and the Spanish Civil War: neutrality and commitment in the struggle that divided America (in French). p. 68. ISBN 978-0-8223-4076-8.
  8. ↑ Noam Chomsky (2001). Understanding Power (PDF). p. 159, Chapter 5 footnotes 61–64. ISBN 1-56584-703-2.
  9. ↑ The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940-1945 pp56-57
  10. ↑ Peck, Merton J. & Scherer, Frederic M. The Weapons Acquisition Process: An Economic Analysis (1962) Harvard Business School p.619
  11. ↑ Report by the Monopolies Commission on the Supply of Petrol to Retailers in the United Kingdom, 1965
  12. 1 2 Texaco Canada Inc
  13. ↑ Texaco: Service Stations, accessed November 23, 2006
  14. ↑ "News and Views: Regent become Texaco". Autocar. Vol. 127 no. 3746. November 30, 1967. p. 48.
  15. ↑ "Largest corporate bankruptcies" (PDF). Bankruptcydata.com.
  16. ↑ "Saudi-Texaco Joint Venture". The New York Times. January 3, 1989. p. 11. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
  17. ↑ Lifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts
  18. ↑ "Why A Lawsuit?". Archived from the original on Dec 2, 2007. Retrieved June 11, 2010.
  19. 1 2 Aspects of the Refining/Marketing Joint Ventures of Shell Oil, Star Enterprises, and Texaco, Retrieved on June 10, 2009.
  20. ↑ "Shell to brand new U.S. gas stations". Houston Business Journal. February 8, 2002.
  21. ↑ Nerad, Jack (May 8, 2002). "Trust Your Car to the Man who Wears the... Shell". Driving Today. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
  22. ↑ "ChevronTexaco Welcomes Back the Texaco Retail Brand in the U.S." (Press release). ChevronTexaco. Jul 1, 2004.
  23. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20081026092940/http://www.texaco.com/about/news_press_081505.asp. Archived from the original on October 26, 2008. Retrieved June 12, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ↑ Delek Petroleum, Ltd.
  25. ↑ "Eastern Withdrawal for Chevron". December 7, 2009.
  26. 1 2 Brenner, Elsa. "IN BUSINESS; Morgan Stanley Seals Deal on Texaco Headquarters." The New York Times. Sunday March 31, 2002. Retrieved on October 3, 2009.
  27. ↑ "Harrison village, New York." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on October 3, 2009.
  28. ↑ "Contact Us." at the Wayback Machine (archived December 5, 1998) Texaco. December 5, 1998. Retrieved on October 3, 2009.
  29. ↑ McGrath, Charles. "A Lunch Club for the Higher-Ups". The New York Times. May 26, 2005. Retrieved on September 19, 2014.
  30. ↑ Olvera, Jennifer (07/03/2008). "5 Things You Need to Know About Nickel-Metal-Hybrid Batteries". GreenCar.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2009. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ↑ "Stanford Ovshinsky : Amorphous semiconductor materials". Inventor of the Week. March 2000.
  32. ↑ Roberson, J. (March 14, 2007) "Supplier Cobasys exploring more hybrid batteries" Detroit Free Press
  33. ↑ ECD Ovonics Definitive Proxy Statement of January 15, 2003
  34. ↑ ECD Ovonics Amended General Statement of Beneficial Ownership of December 2, 2004
  35. ↑ ECD Ovonics 10-Q Quarterly Report for the period ending September 30, 2007
  36. 1 2 ECD Ovonics 10-Q Quarterly Report for the period ending March 31, 2008
  37. ↑ http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/3934
  38. ↑ Boschert, S (2007). Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. ISBN 978-0-86571-571-4.
  39. ↑ Greenberg, Joel (October 14, 2008). "The Edison of our Age: Stan Ovshinsky and the Future of Energy [Video Interview Part 1]". The Energy Roadmap.
  40. ↑ Abuelsamid, S. (December 6, 2006) "Cobasys providing NiMH batteries for Saturn Aura hybrid" Autobloggreen.com
  41. ↑ "Mercedes sues Cobasys over battery deal" Automotive News Europe
  42. ↑ Abuelsamid, Sam (2009-07-27). "Bosch-Samsung battery venture buys Cobasys". green.autoblog.com. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
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