TEXACO INC.

American-based oil and petrochemical corporation, founded in 1902 (as The Texas Company) and, by the late 20th century, one of the world's largest petroleum companies in sales. The current name was adopted in 1959. Though it is now headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., the company originally conducted its business ventures wholly within Texas and still has major operations there. Its operations have expanded, however, to all states of the United States and to countries on all continents. Texaco is primarily engaged in the production, refining, marketing, and shipping of petroleum and natural gas. The Texas Company was founded by Joseph S. Cullinan (18601937), a former Standard Oil field-worker, and Arnold Schlaet (18591946), a New York investment manager. Their original design was to buy and refine oil in Texas and sell it to Standard Oil Company interests in the North at a profit, but very soon they expanded into oil production in the giant Spindletop field. By 1910 the company was operating tankers out of New York and by 1911 had established its first refinery outside Texas, in Illinois. In 1928 it became the first company to market in all 48 states, and in the 1930s it began operations in Canada, Colombia, and Venezuela. It joined with Standard Oil of California in half ownership of ventures in the Middle East and Indonesiasuch as the Caltex group of companies in Bahrain, the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in Saudi Arabia, and holding companies in Sumatra and Java. In 1984 Texaco purchased the Getty Oil Company but was sued for contract interference by the Pennzoil Company, whose own imminent acquisition of Getty had been derailed by Texaco's successful bid. Texaco retained control of Getty, but Pennzoil won punitive damages after a five-year court battle, being awarded the sum of $10,530,000,000 (of which Texaco eventually paid $3,000,000,000). The Getty Oil Company, formerly headquartered in Los Angeles, had been incorporated in 1928 as the Pacific Western Oil Corporation, holding properties owned by Edward L. Doherty and family. It came under the control of J. Paul Getty (q.v.), and the name Getty Oil Company was adopted in 1956.