verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message union oil company of california and unocal corporation former type merged into chevron corporation downstream business active with m s raaj unocal lubricants limited industry oil and gas founded october 17 1890 founder thomas bard wallace hardison lyman stewart defunct august 10 2005 except asia operations headquarters el segundo ca us key people charles r. williamson chairman & ceo services petroleum explorer and marketer revenue 8.204 billion 2004 operating income 1.145 billion 2004 net income 1.208 billion 2004 total assets 13.101 billion 2004 total equity 5.217 billion 2004 number of employees 6 400 2005 website www.unocal.in union oil company of california dba unocal ju no k l is a company that was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century through the 20th century and into the early 21st century . it was headquartered in el segundo california united states . 1 2 unocal was involved in domestic and global energy projects . unocal was one of the key players in the centgas consortium which attempted to build the trans afghanistan pipeline to run from the caspian area through afghanistan to the indian ocean at a time after the recent taliban siege of kabul in 1996 . on august 10 2005 unocal merged its entire upstream petroleum business with chevron corporation and became a wholly owned subsidiary . unocal has now ceased operations as an independent company but continues to conduct many operations as union oil company of california a chevron company . since 1990 unocal continues to have strong presence in the downstream petroleum business with their technical collaborators m s raaj unocal lubricants ltd for manufacture and marketing of their lubricating products in asia . raaj unocal lubricants ltd continues the legacy of unocal 76 in the downstream petroleum business and has intellectual property rights of the brand since 1994 . contents 1 history 1.1 controversy 2 operations 2.1 central asia 2.2 indonesia 3 sponsorships 4 criticism 4.1 domestic us criticism 4.2 doe v. unocal 5 see also 6 references 6.1 footnotes 7 further reading 8 external links history edit original headquarters in santa paula california . cracking plant in orange county california 1961 . research facility in brea california circa 1965 . see also union 76 the union oil company of california was founded on october 17 1890 in santa paula california by lyman stewart thomas bard and wallace hardison . it was a merger of three southern california oil companies the sespe oil company the hardison and stewart oil company and the mission transfer company . 3 all three were notable as being completely unaffiliated with standard oil . union oil moved its headquarters to los angeles in 1901 . the original headquarters in santa paula is a california historical landmark . about 1910 union oil made a strategic alliance with the independent producers agency a group of small oil producers to build pipelines from the kern county oil fields to union oil facilities on the pacific coast . this gave the independent producers an alternative to what they perceived as the low prices paid by standard oil and the high freight rates charged by the railroads to move crude oil . 4 it gave union access to a large volume of crude oil . the situation was later fictionalized in the 2007 film there will be blood . in 1919 the union oil company of delaware was incorporated as a holding company for the union oil company of california . 5 in 1920 union oil purchased the central petroleum company from the texas company . 5 in 1922 the union oil associates inc. was incorporated in california as a holding company to prevent control of the union oil company of california passing to foreign interests after the merger of the union oil company of delaware with royal dutch company . 6 in 1961 union entered into the indonesian oil market . henry l. brandon union s vice president of international development wrote a contract of work arrangement which was a first for indonesia . in a speech on indonesian independence day in august 1961 then president sukarno talked at some length about production sharing which included language written into the contract by union executives . the company expanded to national status in 1965 when union oil merged with the pure oil company headquartered in what was then palatine illinois and now schaumburg illinois . over the next two decades union became the major oil producer in southern alaska and a major natural gas producer in the gulf of mexico . the company was reorganized in 1983 and union oil company of california became an operating subsidiary of a new delaware based holding company unocal corporation . in 1985 mesa petroleum controlled by billionaire t. boone pickens attempted a takeover of unocal corp. 7 that resulted in the delaware supreme court landmark decision unocal v. mesa petroleum which upheld unocal s takeover defense . virtually all operations are conducted by union oil company of california union oil . in 1977 unocal acquired the molybdenum corporation of america now molycorp . 8 among the assets acquired was mountain pass rare earth mine a then world s largest producer of rare earth elements . in 1989 unocal placed its midwest refining and marketing assets including union s 150 000 barrel per day 24 000 m3 d refinery in lemont illinois into a 50 50 joint venture with petr leos de venezuela s.a. p.d.v.s.a. . the joint venture known as the uno ven company was headquartered in arlington heights illinois and primarily comprising employees from union oil s then schaumburg illinois division headquarters and lemont illinois refinery . the joint venture was dissolved in 1997 with p.d.v.s.a. receiving full ownership . during the life of the joint venture the familiar union 76 brand name continued in full force . at the termination of the joint venture most stations were converted to citgo which is controlled by p.d.v.s.a. in 1990 unocal entered into a technical collaboration with a multimillion dollar business house of india m s raaj unocal lubricants limited flagship company of rajgarhia group of industries via their chairman late shri k.l rajgarhia to manufacture and market unocal range of lubricants and greases in india . unocal subsequently under the provisions of their collaboration agreement granted permission of transferring ip rights to the brand name unocal 76 76 unocal both collectively and severely to m s raaj unocal lubricants limited for asia to protect their ip rights due to non existence of a bilateral agreement between usa and india on ip rights . in 1997 unocal sold its western united states refining and marketing operations to tosco corporation including the rights to the union 76 brand for refining and marketing except in states where uno ven operated . tosco was later acquired by phillips petroleum who later merged with conoco to form conocophillips . controversy edit in march 2005 the chinese national offshore oil corporation cnooc tried to acquire unocal with a bid that valued unocal at between 16 billion and 18 billion . following a vote in the united states house of representatives the bid was referred to president george w. bush on the grounds that its implications for national security needed to be reviewed . 9 cnooc withdrew its bid . soon after unocal merged with chevron . the merger was seen according to whom as u.s. protectionism in the involvement of political interests where cnooc was made aware of a harsh political reaction to a take over of american companies . 10 american congressmen cited national security as a reason for being alarmed by the takeover option . 11 operations edit central asia edit unocal was one of the key players in the centgas consortium an attempt to build the trans afghanistan pipeline to run from the caspian area through afghanistan and probably pakistan to the indian ocean . one of the consultants to unocal at that time was zalmay khalilzad former us ambassador to afghanistan iraq and the united nations . indonesia edit unocal entered the indonesian market in 1961 . under the leadership of henry l. brandon vp of international development unocal was the first us oil company to sign a production sharing agreement contract of work with president suharto . 12 in the 1980s cia chief bill casey had revived the agency s practice of gaining intelligence from traveling businessmen . marty miller one of unocal s top executives conducted negotiations in several central asian countries from 1995 and voluntarily provided information gained on these trips to the cia s houston station . 13 in 1996 unocal opened an office in kandahar afghanistan while the taliban were in the process of taking control of the country . unocal rented a house in central kandahar directly across the street from one of osama bin laden s new compounds . they did not choose this location deliberately . most of the decent houses in town straddled the herat bazaar road . also near was the pakistani consulate which housed officers from the pakistani military inter services intelligence the isi . steve coll ghost wars 14 in 1997 robert oakley ex us ambassador to pakistan now on unocal s ad hoc advisory board advised miller to reach the taliban by working through pakistan s government then led by benazir bhutto . he also suggested that unocal hire thomas gouttiere an afghan specialist at the university of nebraska at omaha to develop a job training program in kandahar that would teach pashtuns the technical skills needed to build a pipeline . ... unocal agreed to pay 900 000 via the university of nebraska to set up a unocal training facility on a fifty six acre site in kandahar not far from bin laden s compounds . ... gouttiere traveled in and out of afghanistan and met with taliban leaders . ... in december 1997 gouttiere worked with miller to arrange for another taliban delegation to visit the united states . ... steve coll ghost wars 15 unocal seems to have had a deeper role . intelligence whistleblower julie sirrs claimed that anti taliban leader ahmad shah massoud told her he had proof that unocal had provided money that helped the taliban take kabul in 1996 . 16 and french journalist richard labeviere said referring to the later 1990s the cia and unocal s security forces ... provided military weapons and instructors to several taleban militia s ... 17 us state department officials openly promoted the pipeline and former secretary of state henry kissinger served as a unocal consultant . 16 the taliban and unocal were in negotiations in texas to discuss arrangements for the gas pipeline from turkmenistan to pakistan in 1997 18 although it faced competition with from the argentine bridas corporation . 19 while no deal was ultimately struck with either company the taliban were leaning toward making a deal with unocal as of august 1998 . 20 the company suspended work on the project following the u.s. cruise missile strikes on afghanistan in response to the 1998 u.s. embassy bombings 21 and completely pulled out in december 1998 citing low oil prices and a need to cut costs in addition to regional instability . 22 unocal was also the third largest member of the recently completed and opened baku tbilisi ceyhan pipeline from the caspian sea to the mediterranean sea . sponsorships edit union oil was the sponsor of the major burnham bowling trophy an annual california bowling event supported by the boy scouts of america and named after major frederick russell burnham . 23 24 unocal 76 was the official fuel and motor oil of nascar from the sport s inaugural season in 1948 until the end of the 2003 season when sunoco became the official fuel