CHEVRON CORPORATION

formerly (1926-84) Standard Oil Company Of California, U.S. petroleum corporation formed in 1926 with the merger of Standard Oil Company of California (Socal) and Pacific Oil Company. Headquartered in San Francisco, it operates today in more than 90 countries, either directly or through affiliates. The company trade name is Chevron. The company's origins trace back to 1879 and the founding of Pacific Coast Oil Company, which became California's major oil producer and refiner. In 1900 the Standard Oil Company (see Standard Oil Company and Trust) purchased Pacific Coast Oil and six years later combined it with its own West Coast marketing operations to form Standard Oil Company (California). In 1911, when the U.S. Supreme Court dissolved the giant New Jersey-based Standard Oil combine, the California-based company became an autonomous entity with its own oil fields, pipelines, tankers, refineries, and markets. In 1926 it acquired the properties of Pacific Oil Company (previously owned by Southern Pacific Railway). Soon pipelines and refineries extended from California to Texas. Company geologists discovered vast quantities of oil in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the early 1930s, and in 1936 a marketing enterprise was formed-the Caltex Group of Companies, owned jointly by Standard Oil of California and Texaco. In 1939 the California company began operations in Louisiana and later offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Canadian production began in 1941. Subsidiaries and affiliates later were formed in Libya, Nigeria, Spain, Indonesia, and elsewhere. In 1961 the company purchased Standard Oil Company (Kentucky) and, in 1984, in one of the largest mergers ever, Gulf Oil Corporation. The company currently engages in all phases of petroleum operations, from exploration to marketing and research. It also produces asphalt and a wide range of chemicals and fertilizers.