TEXACOTEXACOTexaco first started operations in Europe in September 1905 when it established a terminal at Antwerp, Belgium. By the 1920s it had a strong market position in the low countries and before the Second World War sold gasoline and oils in most European countries. After the war, with effect from 1-1-1947 it sold half of its operations to Standard Oil Company of California (Chevron) and the Texaco name was replaced by Caltex everywhere except Britain which used the name Regent.
This joint venture was dissolved in 1967. Chevron took the largest share of downstream activities in West Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux and Denmark, although Texaco gained some outlets in each country. Texaco obtained the larger chain in Britain (as it had owned more than 50% of Regent) and all the marketing assets in other countries, including the rest of Scandinavia and Ireland. Texaco rapidly added to these operations by acquiring Deutsche Erdöl AG which had an extensive network of service stations in West Germany, Switzerland and Western Austria.
It re-acquired the Chevron networks (except Britain & Italy) in 1984, putting it back into market leadership in Belgium, but like most other oil majors, Texaco rationalised its network in the 1980s and 90s. Italy was sold in 1987 to Tamoil, and the West German chain to RWE-DEA a couple of years later. Texaco also withdrew from the smaller Austrian and Greek markets and sold its Swedish chain to Preem. It merged its remaining Scandinavian outlets with those of Norsk Hydro to form HydroTexaco at the start of 1995.
Texaco had been weakened following its controversial takeover of Getty Oil in the 1980s, and in response to the mega-mergers of the late 1990s, it agreed to be bought by its old Caltex partner to form ChevronTexaco in 2001. However the remaining European marketing (mainly in UK/Ireland, Benelux and Poland) remains under the Texaco brand.
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Up to 1939 Texaco maps of Europe were often similar in appearance to their US counterparts. The example left (image courtesy of Jon Roma) is of Belgium and dates from around 1930. The Netherlands map (right) is from the late 1930s and, apart from the outline of the country in the middle, is almost identical to the 1938 USA cover. The map is quite simple and was drawn by J. Smulders & Co at 1:400,000. |
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Although similar internally to earlier Belgian maps, this 1939 issue has a cover design unique to the country. This must be one of the last European Texaco maps issued before the war, and there was then almost a 30 year gap in the issuance of such Texaco maps until after the de-merger from Caltex. Image courtesy of Michel Breugelmans |
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These two West German maps are typical sectional maps issued in the 1970s. Both are from series of 8 maps produced by Falk-Verlag of Hamburg at 1:250,000. The earlier example (far left), section 8, has a laminated card cover and eight pages of scenic tours (number 57 to 64!) stapled inside the cover. The map itself was also Texaco branded and offers an alternative photo cover (near left). Section 1 (right) comes from 1975 and was purely a paper map. |
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 2/3rds relative size |
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 2/3rds relative size |
Texaco issued maps for nearly twenty years in Britain, but with remarkably few variations in cover design.
From Left to Right: The first series were similar to the final design of Regent maps covering Britain in four sections at five miles to the inch with a fifth section for Ireland. This transitional style still had a small Regent logo on the rear cover. The next series used identical maps from Geographia but had a bold yellow and red cover design that was used throughout the 1970s. The hardback atlas (centre) used the same cartography and dates from 1978. There appears to have been a short gap in maps in the early 1980s before a new design incorporating the Texaco "system 2000" red and black colours was introduced. The cartographer was changed to George Philip & Son and Britain now needed six sections with section names not found on any other oil company maps: number 5 was described as being "Yorkshire and the North". This was a short lived series as sheet map sales had fallen in the UK, and the following year Texaco issued a mid-format softback road atlas with a very plain cover using an older design of George Philip map.
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Texaco's Irish subsidiary published maps of Ireland independently once once the UK series were discontinued. A 1982 example has an attractive watercolour scene cover on an Ordnance Survey of Ireland map at 1:575,000 which also carried plenty of product advertising. Maps continued to be issued right into the 1990s and the 1997 example right used AA cartography and listed all Texaco service stations in both the Republic and Northern Ireland (although it does not appear to have been sold in the North). |
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With a strong position in the Low Countries, it is no surprise to find a range of Texaco maps. The 1982 and 1998 Netherlands maps (left) used typical Falkplan/Bootsma cartography pasted into card covers. |
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Here are two of the last Texaco maps from Scandinavia. The Danish map is a Folia/Legindkort production at the common Danish scale of 1:510,000 (widely used since the 1950s). The 1994 Swedish vägkarta is in fact a spiral bound folded atlas by Liber Kartor with 11 double pages of sectional maps and 9 of town plans. Both maps mark service station locations with a small Texaco star. |
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Belgian petrol companies have moved in recent years to issuing some very small format maps - just 10cm by 8 cm when folded. Texaco Belgium SA issued this map of neighbouring Netherlands around 2000 for free issue jointly with Group Vlan publications - De Streekkrant and De Weekkrant. Inside, Geocart provided a serviceable map at 1:450,000, by splitting it over both sides of the paper. |
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A more normal size for Belgian maps is 15.8cm by 10cm. Several firms have issued maps by Geocart-Claus in this format on glossy paper, principally to locate their service stations. The Texaco example shown here is dated 1.1.04, and has a serviceable map at around 1:525,000. Dutch maps of the same format are less common, but this undated example is probably also from 2004 and uses Wegener-Falkplan cartography at a similar scale. Both maps list all Texaco stations on their reverse. |
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Texaco has also occasionally issued maps in Britain, but always in an atlas format. In 1999 it sold a Texaco branded version of the AA large format softback road atlas of Britain (not shown). This atlas, which is widely distributed in various formats, covers the whole of the UK at a scale of 5 miles to the inch. |
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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 2000-2 |
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