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Texaco name falling victim to oil industry merger
by The Associated Press
The Texaco star is dimming on many corners, as the effects of the rash of oil mergers in recent years trickle down to the service station level.
The mega-deals that created industry giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp., BP plc, and ConocoPhillips resulted in the quick combining of the exploration and refining businesses of different companies. While those shifts occurred largely out of the public view, the latest changes are more noticeable as the Shell logo replaces thousands of black-and-red Texaco stars across the country.
As name-brand changes go, “We're not sure whether we can find another in any industry that's this size,” said Russell Caplan, vice president of Shell Oil Products U.S. “We can say confidently it's the biggest thing we've attempted.”
The makeovers of many Texaco stations can be traced to Texaco's 2001 merger with Chevron.
Antitrust regulators forced Texaco to sell its U.S. gas stations, which it owned through a stake in a joint venture with Shell and another partnership with Shell and Saudi Refining Inc.
Overnight, Houston-based Shell Oil became the supplier for 21,000 Shell and Texaco stations in the United States, but Shell wanted to supply only 15,000 stations.
Some locations sold As a result, Shell, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal/Dutch Shell, is selling some company-owned locations and telling some independent Texaco operators it doesn't want them to fly the Shell flag. At the same time, some Texaco operators are turning down Shell.
The surviving Texaco stations can move under the ChevronTexaco umbrella as early as June 2004. Two years later in 2006, the San Francisco-based company will regain exclusive use of the Texaco name from Shell.
ChevronTexaco officials say the Texaco brand will still have value in 2006, but have not said what they plan to do with the name.
Shell and the Texaco stations it is taking over control about 14.3 percent of the U.S. gasoline market, according to a national survey by the Lundberg Letter, an industry publication. ExxonMobil is next at 11.8 percent, then BP at 11.7 percent and ConocoPhillips at 11.3 percent.
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