ChevronTexaco Corp. ranks among the world's largest and most competitive global energy companies. Headquartered in San Ramon, it is engaged in every aspect of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production; refining, marketing and transportation; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation.

The corporation traces its roots to an 1879 oil discovery at Pico Canyon, north of Los Angeles. This find led to the formation, in the same year, of the Pacific Coast Oil Company. Another side of the genealogical chart points to the 1901 founding of The Texas Fuel Company, a modest enterprise that started out in three rooms of a corrugated iron building in Beaumont, Texas.

These two companies, the predecessors of Chevron Corp. and Texaco Inc., respectively, were both instrumental in transforming a fledgling oil business into today's multifaceted, high-tech energy industry.

ChevronTexaco businesses extend beyond producing and refining, with a chemicals venture, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., an interest in Dynegy Inc., and interests in 30 power projects now operating or being developed on five continents. The company also looks to the future through the development and commercialization of several advanced energy technologies such as fuel cells, hydrogen storage and gas-to-liquids.