Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
owned and operated by
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...
. Its flagship product is its
fuel
A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...
"Texaco with
Techron
Techron is a patented fuel additive developed by Chevron Corporation and sold in its fuel operations (including Texaco and Caltex). It contains a polyether amine-based detergent, which is purported to dissolve deposits in automotive engines and pr ...
". It also owned the
Havoline motor oil
Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, deterg ...
brand. Texaco was an
independent company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
until its refining operations merged into Chevron, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to
Shell plc
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
through
its American division.
Texaco began as the "Texas Fuel Company", founded in 1902
in
Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...
, by
Joseph S. Cullinan, Thomas J. Donoghue, and
Arnold Schlaet upon the discovery of oil at
Spindletop
Spindletop is an oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas, in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindleto ...
.
The Texas Fuel Company was not set up to drill wells or to produce crude oil. To accomplish this, Cullinan organized the Producers Oil Company in 1902, as a group of investors affiliated with The Texas Fuel Company. Men such as John W. ("Bet A Million") Gates invested in "certificates of interest" to an amount of almost ninety thousand dollars. 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 approximately $590,000 in return for company stock.
Texaco was 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
Harrison is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States, northeast of Manhattan. The population was 28,218 at the 2020 census.
History
Harrison was established in 1696 by a patent granted by the British government to John Harrison a ...
, 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 850 Texaco-branded service stations.
History
1902–38: Beginnings
![Texas company galveston](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Texas_company_galveston.jpg)
Texaco was founded in
Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...
as the "Texas Fuel Company" in 1902,
by
Jim Hogg,
Joseph S. Cullinan,
John Warne Gates, and
Arnold Schlaet. On 1 May 1902, the Texas Company was formed from the assets of Texas Fuel assets, and additional
capitalization
Capitalization (American English) or capitalisation (British English) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in lower case, in writing systems with a case distinction. The term a ...
.
In 1905, it established an operation in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, ,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, under the name Continental Petroleum Company, which it acquired control of in 1913. In 1915, Texaco moved to new 13 story offices on 1111 Rusk St., Houston, Texas. In 1928, Texaco became the first U.S. oil company to sell its gasoline nationwide under one single brand name in all of the then 48 states.
![Texaco Plakat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Texaco_Plakat.jpg)
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 engine
A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an i ...
s and other emergency vehicles. It was promoted through a radio program over NBC hosted by
Ed Wynn
Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He was noted for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a d ...
, called the ''Texaco Fire Chief''.
In 1936, the Texas Corporation purchased the
Barco oil concession
The Barco oil concession was one of the main concessions in Colombia during the early development of its petroleum industry, the other being the De Mares concession.
Oil was first found in the Norte de Santander department near the border with Vene ...
in
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
, and formed a joint venture with Socony-Vacuum, now
Mobil
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
, 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. During this time, Texaco also illegally supplied the
fascist Gen. Franco faction in Spanish Civil War, despite a federal fine, with a total of oil.
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 (now
Chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* '' Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...
) – 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
Walter Dorwin Teague (December 18, 1883 – December 5, 1960) was an American industrial designer, architect, illustrator, graphic designer, writer, and entrepreneur. Often referred to as the "Dean of Industrial Design", Teague pioneered in the ...
to develop a modern service station design.
![HFM 1939 Dodge Texaco tanker truck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/HFM_1939_Dodge_Texaco_tanker_truck.jpg)
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.
After the onset of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in 1939, Texaco's CEOS,
Adam Mansour and Julio Cezar Cruz, admirers 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. In 1940, Rieber was forced to resign when his connections with
German Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
, and his illegal supply of oil to the
fascist forces during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
were made public by the ''Herald Tribune'' through information produced by
British Security Coordination. Life Magazine portrayed Rieber's resignation as unfair, advocating that he only dined with
Westrick, and lent him a company car.
![Ame05198 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Ame05198_04.jpg)
During the war, Texaco ranked 93rd among United States corporations in the value of military production contracts. 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, 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
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
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 (by then) 50 states. It also acquired
McColl-Frontenac Oil Company Ltd. of Canada and changes its name to Texaco Canada Limited.
Around this time,
Paragon Oil
Paragon Oil was an American petroleum, oil company, founded in 1925 in New York City by the Schwartz family, and sold to Texaco in the late 1950s. It is not related to the Paragon Oil Company operating today in Brooklyn.
Founding of the company ...
, a major fuel oil distribution company in the northeastern U.S, was acquired.
1964–98: Various ventures
![Texaco gas pumps, Milford, Illinois (LOC)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Texaco_gas_pumps%2C_Milford%2C_Illinois_%28LOC%29.jpg)
In 1964, Texaco introduced the "Matawan" service station design at a station in
Matawan, New Jersey
Matawan is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A historic community located near the Raritan Bay in the much larger Raritan Valley region, the borough is a commuter town of New York City within the New York Metropol ...
. Two years later, Texaco replaced the long-running banjo sign with a new
hexagon
In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexa ...
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.
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
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
. 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
A fire chief or fire commissioner is a top executive rank or commanding officer in a fire department.
Nomenclature
Various official English-language titles for a fire chief include ''fire chief'', ''chief fire officer'' and ''fire commissioner' ...
to Texaco Regular, and Super Lead-free
Sky Chief to Texaco Super Unleaded.
At the end of 1981 and the beginning of 1982, members of the Medellín Cartel (including the now famous "Pablo Escobar"), the Colombian military, the U.S.-based corporation
Texas Petroleum, the Colombian legislature, small industrialists, and wealthy cattle ranchers came together in a series of meetings in
Puerto Boyacá
Puerto Boyacá is a Colombian river-port town and municipality by the Magdalena River in the Boyacá Department, where is also considered a Special Trade Zone due to its port status. Its main industries are oil exploration and processing. In the 1 ...
, and formed a
paramilitary organization known as ''
Muerte a Secuestradores
Muerte a Secuestradores (English: ''Death to Kidnappers'') or MAS, was a Colombian paramilitary group supported by drug cartels, U.S. corporations, Colombian politicians, and wealthy landowners during the 1980s to protect their economic interests ...
'' ("Death to Kidnappers", MAS) to defend their economic interests, and to provide protection for local elites from kidnappings and extortion.
[HRW, 1996]
"II. History of the Military-Paramilitary Partnership"
/ref>[Richani, 2002: p.38][Hristov, 2009]
pp. 65-68
/ref> By 1983, Colombian internal affairs had registered 240 political killings by MAS death squads, mostly community leaders, elected officials, and farmers.
On November 19, 1985, Pennzoil
Pennzoil is an American motor oil brand currently owned by Shell plc. The former Pennzoil Company had been established in 1913 in Pennsylvania, being active in business as an independent firm until it was acquired by Shell in 2002, becoming a bra ...
won a US$10.53 billion verdict against Texaco in the largest civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility
*Civil action, or lawsuit
* Civil affairs
*Civil and political rights
*Civil disobedience
*Civil engineering
*Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism
*Civilian, someone not a membe ...
verdict in US history. This was due to the fact that Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil
Getty Oil was an American oil marketing company with its origins as part of the large integrated oil company founded by J. Paul Getty.
History
J. Paul Getty incorporated Getty Oil in 1942. He had previously worked in the oil fields of Oklaho ...
after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Gordon Getty
Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed ...
. In 1987, Texaco filed for bankruptcy. It was the largest in U.S. history until 2001.
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. 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. The Toronto-based Texaco Canada Incorporated subsidiary was sold to Imperial Oil
Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...
with all Texaco Canada retail operations converted to Esso
Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...
brand. Two years later, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...
. In 1993, several dozen tribal leaders and residents from the Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
an Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
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
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...
sites, causing toxic contamination
Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc.
Types of contamination
W ...
of approximately 30,000 residents.
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
Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world a ...
under the new brand HydroTexaco. This joint venture was sold in 2007, to Norwegian retail interests as YX Energi
YX Energi, formerly known as Hydro Texaco, is a Norwegian and Danish gas station chain formed after the merge of the Hydro and Texaco gas station chains in 1995. In 2006 the company was bought by Reitangruppen and incorporated into their chain ...
, following the purchase of Hydro by Statoil. In 1996, Texaco paid over $170 million to settle racial discrimination
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...
lawsuits filed by black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
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 of meetings with company executives planning to destroy incriminating evidence.
1999–present: Chevron Corporation
In 1999, the company formed the joint venture Equilon with Shell Oil Company
Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States-based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,0 ...
, combining their Western and Midwestern U.S. refining and marketing.[Aspects of the Refining/Marketing Joint Ventures of Shell Oil, Star Enterprises, and Texaco](_blank)
, Retrieved on June 10, 2009. This gave rise to the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
antitrust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
case of ''Texaco Inc. v. Dagher
''Texaco Inc. v. Dagher'', 547 U.S. 1 (2006), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the application of U.S. antitrust law to a joint venture between oil companies to market gasoline to gas stations. The Court ruled un ...
'', 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
Motiva Enterprises, LLC, is an American company that operates as a fully-owned affiliate of Saudi Aramco. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, it had a revenue of $500 Million . Motiva operates as a distributor of Shell and 76 branded gasoli ...
, 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.
In October 2000, Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...
agreed to buy Texaco for $36 billion. The merger was completed October 9, 2001.[ As required by the FTC consent agreement, Texaco's interest in the Equilon and Motiva joint ventures were sold to Shell Shell began re-branding its Texaco stations as Shell the next year. Around 2003, due to lack of demand, Texaco closed Refineria Panamá, a refinery in ]Colón, Panama
Colón () is a city and seaport in Panama, beside the Caribbean Sea, lying near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. It is the capital of Panama's Colón Province and has traditionally been known as Panama's second city. Originally it was l ...
. In July 2004, Chevron regained non-exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S. The following year, in August, Texaco introduced the Techron additive into its fuels in the U.S. and parts of Latin America. In 2007, Delek
Delek Group is an Israeli conglomerate and one of Israel's largest companies, Delek Group is involved in the energy and infrastructure, with investments in upstream and downstream energy, water desalination and power plants. Delek Group' subsid ...
Benelux took over marketing activities for Chevron in Benelux
The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...
, including 869 filling stations, mostly under the Texaco brand. In 2010, Chevron 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.
Corporate headquarters
Prior to the merger with Chevron, Texaco's headquarters was a building in Harrison
Harrison may refer to:
People
* Harrison (name)
* Harrison family of Virginia, United States
Places
In Australia:
* Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin
In Canada:
* Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...
, in Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
, near to White Plains. In 2002, Chevron Corporation sold the former Texaco headquarters to Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
. Morgan Stanley bought the building and the surrounding for $42 million.
Texaco leased 14 floors of the Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
in Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in the 1930s. As part of the leasing agreement with Texaco the building opened the Cloud Club The Cloud Club was a lunch club that occupied the 66th, 67th, and 68th floors of the Chrysler Building in New York City. At one time it was the highest lunch club in the world. It opened in 1930 and closed in 1979.
History
Texaco, a prospective ten ...
, a lunch club for executives. Texaco's move to Westchester County in 1977 contributed to the closure of the Cloud Club in 1979.
In popular culture
A Texaco station at 6407 West Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California was used in the opening scene of ''Cheech & Chong's Next Movie
''Cheech and Chong's Next Movie'' is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Tommy Chong and the second feature-length project by Cheech & Chong, following '' Up in Smoke'', released by Universal Pictures.
Plot
Cheech & Chong are on a mission t ...
'', where the main characters Cheech Cheech or The Cheech may refer to:
People
* Cheech Marin (born 1946), American stand-up comedian and actor
* Cheech, professional wrestler, part of The Miracle Ultraviolence Connection
Other
* ''Cheech'' (film), a 2006 Canadian comedy-drama f ...
and Chong siphon gasoline from a tow truck
A tow truck (also called a wrecker, a breakdown truck, recovery vehicle or a breakdown lorry) is a truck used to move disabled, improperly parked, impounded, or otherwise indisposed motor vehicles. This may involve recovering a vehicle damaged ...
. A Jack in the Box
Jack in the Box is an American fast-food restaurant chain founded February 21, 1951, by Robert O. Peterson (1916–1994) in San Diego, California, where it is headquartered. The chain has over 2,200 locations, primarily serving the West Coas ...
now stands at that location.
In ''Back to the Future
''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, ...
'' and ''Back to the Future Part II
''Back to the Future Part II'' is a 1989 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Bob Gale and a story by both. It is the sequel to the 1985 film ''Back to the Future'' and the second installment in the ' ...
'', a Texaco station in the center of Hill Valley is shown in 1955, 1985, and 2015.
In Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's science fiction short story "The Jaunt
"The Jaunt" is a horror short story by Stephen King first published in ''The Twilight Zone Magazine'' in 1981, and collected in King's 1985 collection ''Skeleton Crew''. The story takes place early in the 24th century, when the technology for t ...
", Texaco exists in the future and has shifted from selling oil to water.
Sponsorships
Sports
Texaco is associated with the Havoline brand of motor oil and other automotive products. It was one of the sponsors of NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
with many drivers, such as Davey Allison
David Carl Allison (February 25, 1961 – July 13, 1993) was an American NASCAR driver. He was best known for driving the No. 28 Texaco-Havoline Ford for Robert Yates Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. Born in Hollywood, Florida, he was th ...
, Ernie Irvan
Virgil Earnest "Ernie" Irvan (born January 13, 1959), occasionally referred to as Swervin' Irvan, is an American former professional stock car racing driver. A retired NASCAR competitor, he is best remembered for his comeback after a serious head ...
, Dale Jarrett
Dale Arnold Jarrett (born November 26, 1956) is a former American race car driver and current commentator for NBC. He is best known for winning the Daytona 500 three times (in 1993, 1996, and 2000) and winning the NASCAR Winston Cup Series champi ...
, Kenny Irwin Jr.
Kenneth Dale Irwin Jr. (August 5, 1969 – July 7, 2000) was an American stock car racing driver. He had driven in all three NASCAR national touring series, and had two total victories, both in the Craftsman Truck Series (today Camping World Tru ...
, Ricky Rudd
Richard Lee Rudd (born September 12, 1956), nicknamed "The Rooster", is an American former racing driver. He is the uncle of actor Skeet Ulrich and former NASCAR Busch Series driver Jason Rudd. He retired in 2007 with 23 career wins. He was name ...
, Jamie McMurray
James Christopher McMurray (born June 3, 1976), nicknamed Jamie Mac, is an American former professional stock car racing driver and currently an analyst for '' Fox NASCAR''. He raced in the NASCAR Cup Series on a full-time basis from 2003 to 2018 ...
, Casey Mears
Casey James Mears (born March 12, 1978) is an American professional off-road and stock car racing driver. He has raced in IndyCar, NASCAR's three national series including 15 seasons in the Cup Series, SCORE International, and the Stadium Super ...
, and Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born September 20, 1975) is a Colombian racing driver.
He won the International F3000 championship in 1998, the CART FedEx Championship Series in 1999 in his debut year in the series, and the IMSA WeatherTech ...
. Texaco recently sponsored the #42 Dodge
Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...
driven by Montoya. Havoline continuously sponsored a car from the early 1980s to 2008. At the end of the 2008 season, Texaco/Havoline ended their sponsorship with NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing
Chip Ganassi Racing, LLC (CGR), also sometimes branded as Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, is an American auto racing organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, NTT IndyCar Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech ...
. This brought a 20-plus-year relationship with the sport to a close.
Texaco has also been involved in open wheel racing
An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have the ...
, sponsoring the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston along with sponsoring drivers like Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...
winner Mario Andretti
Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful drivers in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, t ...
and his son Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
.
In Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
, Texaco sponsored the Team Lotus
Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar, and sports car racing. Mor ...
in 1972 and 1973, and McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...
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
Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. It currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing as a result of the partnership with Tata Consultancy Services. It was previously a Formula One construc ...
, continued until the end of 2001, in the same timeline they also sponsored ITV's Formula 1 Coverage.
Texaco sponsored the Tom Walkinshaw Racing
Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was a motor racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976, in Kidlington, near Oxford, England, by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw.
The company initially handled privateer work before entering works touring ca ...
Rover Vitesse
Vitesse may refer to:
* Vitesse Models, a diecast model car company
* Vitesse (band), Dutch rock band
* Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, a car
* Rover 216 Vitesse, a car
* Rover 3500 Vitesse, a car
* Rover 800 Vitesse, a car
* Triumph Vit ...
factory team at the 1985 and 1986 European Touring Car Championship
The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...
(ETCC) under their Bastos brand, and the Ford Sierra RS500
The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth is a high-performance version of the Ford Sierra that was built by Ford Europe from 1986 to 1992. It was the result of a Ford Motorsport project with the purpose of producing an outright winner for Group A racing in ...
factory cars entered by Eggenberger Motorsport
Eggenberger Motorsport was a Swiss motor racing team that competed in the European Touring Car Championship in the 1980s.
History
In 1982, Eggenberger Motorsport won the 1982 European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) with Umberto Grano and Helmu ...
in the 1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
World Touring Car Championship
The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sin ...
(plus the 1988 ETCC and other European-based championships). Texaco also sponsored cars in the 1987 World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
.
From 1987-1993, Texaco was the major sponsor (through their Australian Caltex offshoot) Colin Bond Racing
Colin Bond Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship between 1984 and 1993.
History Alfa Romeo
After years of racing for other teams, including the factory backed Holden Dealer Team (19 ...
in Australian touring car racing
Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States.
While the cars do not move ...
, first with the Alfa Romeo 75
The Alfa Romeo 75 (Type 161, 162B), sold in North America as the Milano, is a compact executive car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo between 1985 and 1992. The Alfa 75 was commercially quite successful: in only three years, 236,907 c ...
turbo in 1987, then the Ford Sierra RS500 from 1988-1992 and then Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
's in 1993. From 2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
until 2007, it was title sponsor of Stone Brothers Racing
Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the International V8 Supercars Championship between 1998 and 2012. The team was formed in 1998 when Ross and Jim Stone bought Alan Jones's shares in Alan Jones ...
with Russell Ingall
Russell Ingall (born 24 February 1964 in London, England) is a former full-time Australian V8 Supercar driver. He won his V8 Supercars title in 2005, and finished second in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2004. Ingall has also won the Bathurst 1000, in 1 ...
winning the 2005 championship. In 2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
, Caltex became title sponsor of the Triple Eight Race Engineering
Triple Eight Race Engineering, (branded as Red Bull Ampol Racing) is an Australian motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team has been the only Brisbane based V8 Supercar team since its formation, originally operating ...
car of Craig Lowndes
Craig Andrew Lowndes (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing driver in the Repco Supercars Championship competing in the Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He is also a TV commentator.
Lowndes is a three-time V8 Sup ...
, having previously been an associate sponsor of the team.
From 1984 to 1998, Texaco were the title sponsors of the main One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
cricket tournament in England, the Texaco Trophy
The Texaco Trophy was the name used for One Day International cricket tournaments held in England from 1984 until 1998.
The series were sponsored by American oil company Texaco replacing the previous sponsorship by the UK's Prudential (between 1 ...
. It also sponsored the Texaco Cup
The Texaco Cup, officially known as the International League Board Competition, was an association football competition started in 1970, involving sides from England, Scotland, and Ireland that had not qualified for European competitions.
It wa ...
, a football tournament for clubs of the British Isles.
Entertainment broadcast (music or comedy/variety)
Texaco was long associated with the Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
as sole sponsor of its radio broadcasts for 63 years. It was identified as well with such entertainment legends as Ed Wynn
Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He was noted for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a d ...
, Fred Allen
John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program ''The Fred Allen Show'' (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and for ...
and Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...
(many of their shows were originally sponsored by Texaco – see Texaco Star Theatre
''Texaco Star Theater'' was an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Mi ...
, 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
Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen, May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American bishop of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in ...
's religious program for a while, thus leading to Berle's oft-quoted quip, "We both have the same boss – Sky Chief!"
Texaco was also the sponsor of the weekly Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The Metropolitan Opera In ...
, which air to this day since its inception in 1931.
In the 1930s, comedian Ed Wynn
Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He was noted for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a d ...
hosted a half hour stand-up comedy/variety show on the NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
Radio Network, billed as "The Texaco Fire Chief", a reference to its regular grade gasoline. This trend continued into the late 1940s, when Wynn was replaced by Milton Berle
Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...
as television becoming the dominant medium. The title was changed to the 60-minute ''Texaco Star Theater
''Texaco Star Theater'' was an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Mi ...
'', which was also broadcast on NBC.
Environmental issues
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
Deep pocket is an American slang term; it usually means "extensive financial wealth or resources". It is typically used in reference to big companies or organizations (ex: the American tobacco companies have "deep pockets"), although it can be us ...
defendant, when the actual responsibility lies with the government and its national oil company A national oil company (NOC) is an oil and gas company fully or in the majority-owned by a national government. According to the World Bank, NOCs accounted for 75% global oil production and controlled 90% of proven oil reserves in 2010.
Due to thei ...
, Petroecuador
EP Petroecuador (''Empresa Estatal Petróleos del Ecuador''; ''Empresa Pública Petroecuador''; meaning: State Petroleum Company of Ecuador) is the national oil company of Ecuador. Ecuador who is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum E ...
.
Diversification
The NiMH chemistry used in modern hybrid vehicles was invented by ECD Ovonics founder, Stan Ovshinsky, and Dr. Masahiko Oshitani of the Yuasa Company In 1994, General Motors acquired a controlling interest in Ovonics
Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) was an American photovoltaics manufacturer of thin-film solar cells made of amorphous silicon used in flexible laminates and in building-integrated photovoltaics. The company was also a manufacturer of rechargea ...
's battery development and manufacturing. On October 10, 2001, Texaco purchased GM's share in GM Ovonics, and Chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* '' Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...
completed its acquisition of Texaco six days later. In 2003, Texaco Ovonics Battery Systems was restructured into Cobasys
Cobasys LLC supplies nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, battery control systems, and packaged solutions for automotive applications, uninterruptable power supplies, telecommunications applications, and distributed power generation. For 8 year ...
, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) Ovonics.[Roberson, J. (March 14, 2007]
"Supplier Cobasys exploring more hybrid batteries"
''Detroit Free Press''
See also
* Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...
* Caltex – joint venture between Texaco and Chevron, now a major international brand name of Chevron Corporation
* Cobasys
Cobasys LLC supplies nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, battery control systems, and packaged solutions for automotive applications, uninterruptable power supplies, telecommunications applications, and distributed power generation. For 8 year ...
References
External links
*
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