Texaco ("The Texas Company") is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel, "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand.

Texaco was an independent company until it merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001. 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 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 (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."

Texaco gasoline comes with Techron, an additive developed by Chevron, as of 2005, replacing the previous CleanSystem3. The Texaco brand is strong in the United States, 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.

The current CEO is David J. O'Reilly.

History

• 1911 – Texaco purchased from owner of the Red Star Oil Company, one Mr. Dawkins.
• 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 Wynn the "Texaco Fire Chief." http://www.nfo.net/graphics/NBCOrchEdWynnTexaco1.jpg
• 1937 – Texaco commissioned industrial designer Walter Dorwin 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.Fact: date=February 2008 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.Fact: date=February 2008
• 1947 – Texaco merged its British operation with Trinidad Leaseholds under the name Regent.Fact: date=February 2008
• 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.Fact: date=February 2008
• 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.
• 1959 – Texaco acquires McColl-Frontenac Oil Company Ltd. of Canada and changes its name to Texaco Canada Ltd.[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007930 Texaco Canada Inc