Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in more than 60 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Southern Africa.

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 Bahrain. 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.

Caltex timeline: ^[1]

Caltex Petroleum Australia Pty. Ltd. (ASX: CTX ^[24] ) 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.^[2]

Julian Segal has been the CEO of Caltex Australia since July 2009.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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 operated 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 and blending terminal.^[6]

Petrol

Most sites stock all of these products, however Bio E10 unleaded is the least common and regular unleaded the most common.

Diesel

Each site only sells at least one of these 3 products.

Other fuel types

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

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, with toilets usually located inside and often open 24 hours. In 2009, the New Zealand operations were sold off and rebranded as Fix stores^[8][9][10], which in turn were rebranded as Night 'n' Day from 2017.

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.

In 2003 Caltex Australia entered into a joint venture agreement with large supermarket retailer Woolworths Limited.^[11] 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.

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.

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 and 2017, Caltex was title sponsor of the Triple Eight Race Engineering car of Craig Lowndes, having previously been an associate sponsor of the team.

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.^[12]

Caltex has been operating in New Zealand since 1936. On 1 June 2016, Chevron New Zealand, which operated the Caltex brand in New Zealand, was acquired by Z Energy Ltd. Z Energy, a New Zealand owned company, operates the Caltex network in New Zealand using the brand under licence from Chevron International. The Caltex-branded retail network is independently owned and operated, with the operators setting their own retail fuel prices.^[13] There are more than 140 Caltex branded service stations and 70 truck stops around New Zealand. ^[14]

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.

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 Texaco Road. The oil terminal was moved to Tsing Yi where it is and the land plot in Tsuen Wan was developed into a residential complex named Riviera Gardens. Caltex operates over a dozen service stations through Hong Kong Island, New Territories and Kowloon.

There are around 420 Caltex stations across Peninsular Malaysia and three 3 terminals in Pulau Indah, Prai and a joint-venture in Pasir Gudang.^[15]

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.^[16] In 1921, Texaco (Philippines) was formally established and opened its office in Binondo, Manila.^[16] Eleven years later, its Pandacan oil depot was converted into a key distribution terminal to bring products by barge to nearby provinces.^[16] 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. ^[16]

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 its 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. CEO of T.C. Brothers Co, was Mr. Tribhovandas D Parekh (also known as Mr. Pampu-sheth ) & Chairman was Mr. Cuhnilal D Parekh. T. C. Brothers company dealt in Petrolium products, service station for automobiles, paint, tiles, pipes, cements and transportation of oil, kerosene, gasoline/petrol in state of Gujarat. In 2010, Caltex started trading under the name GS Caltex.^[17]

Caltex arrived in Singapore around the 1950s. There are 25 stations across the island.^[18]

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.^[19]

Caltex had been criticized frequently^[20] for its operations in South Africa during the Apartheid era.

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

Some Asian operations are run by Caltex (Asia) Limited, based in Taipei.^[21] Caltex has a joint venture aviation refueling business in Taiwan airports with Formosa Plastics. It also sells a small quantity of lubricants into Taiwan market.