Caltex

History

Caltex began in 1936 as the California Texas Oil Company, a joint venture between the Texas Company (later named Texaco) and Standard Oil of California (later named Chevron Corp.) to market oil from newly gained concessions in Saudi Arabia. It was renamed Caltex Petroleum Corp. in 1968. The two parent companies merged in 2001 to form ChevronTexaco (renamed Chevron in 2005) and Caltex remains one of its major international brand names.

Australia

Caltex Petroleum Australia Pty. Ltd. (ASX: CTX) until March 2015, Caltex was owned 50 percent by Chevron, and 50 percent by Australian shareholders. In March 2015, Chevron sold down its 50% holding to Australian shareholders.

Julian Segal has been the CEO of Caltex Australia since July 2009.

Caltex took over the Australian companies Golden Fleece in 1981 and Ampol in 1995.

On 27 May 2009 Caltex announced a proposal to acquire 302 Mobil and Mobil Quix service stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, subject to approval of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The ACCC subsequently opposed the takeover on the grounds that the acquisition could result in diminished competition. Caltex subsequently abandoned the acquisition, with Mobil entering into an agreement to sell the same sites to 7-Eleven Australia.

Caltex operates the largest oil company retail network in Australia, however the supermarkets Woolworths and Coles have a larger market share than any of the oil companies operating in Australia.

As of August 2012, Caltex operates two petroleum refineries in Australia: one at Kurnell in Sydney, New South Wales, and one at Lytton in Brisbane, Queensland. The Kurnell Refinery ceased operations in 2014, and part of the existing infrastructure such as wharfs and tanks will be converted to a fuel importation terminal.

Fuels

Petrol

Most sites stock all of these products, however Bio E10 Unleaded is the least common and Regular Unleaded the most common. Bio E-Flex is stocked in approximately 30 sites on the eastern seaboard.

Diesel

Each site only sells one of these 3 products.

Autogas

Autogas is available at selected sites.

Lubricants and motor oil

Caltex sells Delo, Havoline, and Revtex brands of motor oil.

Convenience stores

Caltex branded sites can have any of the following types of convenience stores.

Star Mart: A large store containing a bakery, coffee and hot food as well as convenience items and an ATM. Toilets are usually located inside. Usually open 24 hours. The New Zealand operations were sold off and rebranded as Fix stores.

Star Shop: A smaller store with just convenience items and packaged foods and limited operating hours.

Woolworths: Sites that accept a varying but basic four cents per litre discount offer from Woolworths. Shops are branded as Woolworths. Most are the same as a Star Mart, but some are the size of a Star Shop.

Woolworths joint venture

In 2003 Caltex Australia entered into a joint venture agreement with large supermarket retailer Woolworths Limited. Shortly after in 2004, a similar fuel discount offer was launched by rival Coles Group. Woolworths' existing "Plus Petrol" service stations received Caltex branding and, similarly, Caltex service stations received Woolworths branding—the joint venture outlets became Caltex Woolworths. However this was the case only with certain Caltex service stations close to Woolworths supermarkets and many remain unassociated with the fuel discount offer.

Rugby league

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Caltex was the naming rights sponsor of Endeavour Field, the home ground of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, which is on the road to its Kurnell Refinery.

Motor racing

From 1987 until 1993, Caltex was the title sponsor of Colin Bond Racing. From 2000 until 2007, it was title sponsor of Stone Brothers Racing with Russell Ingall winning the 2005 championship. In 2016, Caltex became title sponsor of the Triple Eight Race Engineering car of Craig Lowndes, having previously been an associate sponsor of the team.

Association football

As of March 2016, Caltex is the naming rights sponsor of the Socceroos and will also be involved in a broader partnership with the men's and women's national teams.

China

Caltex South China Investments Limited operate over 20 stations in Guangdong through various local joint ventures. GS Caltex, from South Korea, have moved into China and operate a few oil stations in Shandong Province.

Hong Kong

Texaco began kerosene sales in Hong Kong (and neighbouring China) in 1913 and Caltex began operating in Hong Kong in 1937 with a diesel terminal. The terminal was situated in Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. The road leading to the terminal was therefore named as Texaco Road. The oil terminal was later moved to Tsing Yi where it is and the land plot in Tsuen Wan was developed into apartments named Riviera Gardens. Caltex operates over a dozen service stations through Hong Kong Island, New Territories and Kowloon.

Malaysia

There are around 420 Caltex stations across Peninsular Malaysia and three 3 terminals in Pulau Indah, Prai and a joint-venture in Pasir Gudang.

Philippines

Caltex was established in the Philippines in 1917 when Texas Company began marketing its products in the Philippines through a local distributor, Wise and Co. In 1921, Texaco (Philippines) was formally established and opened its office in Binondo, Manila. Eleven years later, its Pandacan oil depot was converted into a key distribution terminal to bring products by barge to nearby provinces. Caltex celebrated its 75th anniversary in July 2011. They only sell two kinds of gasoline namely Caltex Platinum (Replacement of Gold) (95 octane) and Caltex Silver (91 octane) and one kind of diesel named Caltex Diesel. All these products contain Techron.

India

Caltex had a subsidiary in India in early 1940's through early 1980's, however as state owned corporation Indian Oil came in to market, strategically Caltex decided to reduce it's operation in India. In State of Gujarat there were 2 major dealers of Caltex, T.C. Brothers Company (Sauratra region) & MS. N. K. Sheth Co. In 2010, Caltex started trading under the name GS Caltex and their URL: http://www.gscaltexindia.com/aboutus.aspx

South Africa

A quarter of Caltex's service stations are located in South Africa making it one of the country's top five petroleum brands. As a subsidiary of Chevron it also owns a refinery in Milnerton, Cape Town which has a production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day and produces a range of petrochemical products which include petrol, diesel, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, fuel oil and paving asphalt. The company also has a lubricants manufacturing plant and laboratory in Durban.

Caltex has been criticized frequently for its operations in South Africa during the Apartheid era.

South Korea

In South Korea, Chevron has operated under the brand name GS Caltex since 1967.

Taiwan

Some Asian operations are run by Caltex (Asia) Limited, based in Taipei. Caltex has a joint venture aviation refueling business in Taiwan airports with Formosa Plastics. It also sells small quantity of lubricants into Taiwan market.

In Popular Culture

A Caltex station appears in the 1957 Ingmar Bergman film Wild Strawberries.