Texaco

Texaco was the name of an American oil company that was merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001. It began as the Texas Fuel Company, founded in 1901 in Beaumont, Texas by Joseph S. Cullinan and Arnold Schlaet upon discovery of oil at Spindletop. For many years, Texaco was the only company selling gasoline in all 50 states, but this is no longer true. Its logo features a white star in a red circle, 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."

Major events

• 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).
• 1931 - The Texas Company (Texaco's corporate name) purchased Indian Oil Company, based in Illinois, a move that expanded Texaco's refining and marketing base in the Midwest and also gave Texaco the rights to Indian's manufacturing processes of Havoline "Wax Free" motor oil, which became a Texaco product and provided the company with a higher quality motor oil product.
• 1932 - Texaco introduced Fire Chief gasoline nationwide, a motor fuel that met the octane requirements for fire engines, and promoted it through a radio program over NBC that was hosted by Ed Winn the "Texaco Fire Chief."
• 1937 - Texaco commissioned architectual designer Walter Teague to develop a modern service station design. The resulting "Teague" Texaco station design was a functional white building with green trimmings featuring one or more service bays for "Washing", "Marfak Lubrication", etc., an office area with large plate glass window for display of tires, batteries and accessories along with "Men" and "Ladies" restrooms featuring Texaco-green tile walls and floors. The Teague station design was typically built of white porcelain tile but local and regional variations could include painted brick, concrete brick and stucco materials. Other features included red Texaco stars on the upper facade on outer sidewalls and above the service bays, and red lettering spelling out "TEXACO" above the office area. Stations were identified by the street from Texaco's "banjo" sign.
• 1938 - Texaco introduced Sky Chief gasoline, a premium grade fuel developed from the ground up as a high-octane gasoline rather than just an ethylized regular product. Sky Chief was dispensed from a silver gas pump in contrast with the red pump used for Fire Chief gasoline - a move that would last many years until the early 1960s.
• 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. The company hired a staff of inspectors who traveled from station to station periodically to ensure that restrooms were up to standard. The "Registered Rest Room" program was later copied by other oil companies and continued at Texaco until the energy crises of the 1970s.
• 1941 - Texaco introduced a "24-hour" station program for selected outlets along major highways during the summer months to help ensure that motorists driving at night were no more than a tankful away from a Texaco station.
• 1954 - To meet the needs of modern automobiles with higher power engines, Texaco upgrades Sky Chief gasoline by adding Petrox as a new additive to increase octane ratings to levels similar to aviation fuel of World War II vintage.
• 1959 - The Texas Company changes 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.
• Late 1950s - Bought Paragon Oil, a major fuel oil distribution company in the northeastern United States.
• 1962 - Texaco introduces the "You Can Trust Your Car To The Man Who Wears The Star" campaign. Both Fire Chief and Sky Chief gasolines are promoted as "Climate Controlled" as various blends of both gasolines are distributed to Texaco stations in various parts of the country.
• 1964 - Texaco introduces the "Matawan" service station design at a station in Matawan, N.J. Features include mansard roofing design, service bays moved to the side of station and sheetrock covering over most exterior walls.
• 1966 - Texaco replaces 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. New logo features red outline with TEXACO in black bold lettering and small banjo logo with red star and green T at bottom. Texaco also enters agreement with Howard Johnson for Texaco credit card to be honored for charging of lodging and food at HoJo hotels, a widespread trend of the time among major oil companies that would last until the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo.
• 1970 - In response to increasingly stringent federal emission standards that would ultimately lead to 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 California, would later expand availabilty nationwide.
• 1980 - Texaco replaces Sky Chief gasoline, a leaded premium grade, with new Super Unleaded Sky Chief.
• 1982 - Texaco replaces 1966-vintage hexagon logo with a new rendition of the old banjo sign in red and white featuring the star and "T". New service station design emphasizes use of dark colors including, black, red and gray. Gasoline products receive name changes with the advent of self-service including Lead Free Texaco to Texaco Unleaded, Fire Chief to Texaco Regular, and Super Unleaded Sky Chief to Texaco Super Unleaded.
• 1984 - Bought Getty Oil (including Tidewater Petroleum), the Getty name and stations in the Northeastern United States was sold to Power Test and is still today. Getty's Skelly stations in several Midwestern states rebranded as Texaco stations.
• 1985 - On November 19 Pennzoil won a US$10.53 billion verdict from Texaco in the largest civil verdict in US history (Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty).
• 1989 - Texaco sells its Canadian refining and marketing operations to Imperial Oil, the Canadian subsidary of Exxon Corp. Service stations in Canada rebranded from Texaco to Esso.
• 1989 - Texaco introduces 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.
• 1994 - Texaco's System3 gasolines replaced by new CleanSystem3 gasolines for improved engine performance.
• 1996 - Texaco pays 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 United States 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.
• 1998 - Formed joint venture Equilon with Royal Dutch/Shell, combining their Western and Midwestern U.S. refining and marketing.
• 1998 - Formed joint venture Motiva with Royal Dutch/Shell and Saudi Aramco, a joint venture combining their Eastern and Gulf Coast U.S. refining and marketing businesses.
• 2001 - Shell purchased Texaco's share of the joint ventures to permit Texaco to merge with Chevron. Shell may exclusively use the Texaco brand in the U.S. through 2004, and non-exclusively through 2006.
• 2001 - Chevron Corporation merges with Texaco.
• July 2004 - Chevron regains non-exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name.