novel . not to be confused with texico . texaco inc. type independent company 1901 2000 subsidiary 2001 present industry oil and gas founded beaumont texas u.s. 1901 ; 115 years ago 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 . citation needed 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 . citation needed contents 1 history 1.1 1901 38 beginnings 1.2 1939 63 the texas company to texaco inc. 1.3 1964 98 various ventures 1.4 1999 present chevron corporation 2 corporate headquarters 3 in popular culture 4 sponsorships 5 environmental issues 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit gippsland motor garage old gippstown with 1930s texaco gasoline pump and signage antique texaco advertising gippsland motor garage old gippstown 1901 38 beginnings edit 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 grade 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. edit 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 edit texaco fuel station in po s o 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 edit 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