The house flag of Chevron Shipping, California. A blue rectangular flag with a central white disc bearing a chevron device striped blue, white and red. The flag is made of cotton bunting and is machine sewn. There are eyeletted holes at the top and bottom of the hoist edge.
Chevron Shipping’s history begins in 1879 with the formation of the Pacific Coast Oil Company by oil merchants Frederick Taylor and Demetrius Scofield in San Francisco, California. Pacific Coast Oil entered the shipping business in 1895 with the launch of California’s first steel tanker, the 641-ton ‘George Loomis’, to ship oil between Ventura and San Francisco. In 1900, Pacific Coast Oil became a subsidiary of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, and in 1906 after further company reorganization, became known as Standard Oil Company of California, later referred to as ‘Socal’ or California Standard. In 1911 however, the company was once again on its own as Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was dissolved by the United States Supreme Court because of antitrust activities. By the time of the Standard Oil antitrust decision, Standard Oil Company of California had a large fleet, which transported oil along the west coast of the California as well as inland via the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. During World War I, the Allies used oil company tankers to transport materials between the United States and Europe. Standard Oil Company of California’s ‘El Segundo’ and ‘Richmond’ both safely made several trips between London and New York City carrying petrol. By 1921 Socal was operating 41 vessels and began delivering oil and bulk petrol to eastern ports such as Australia. It was during the post-WWI era that fear of oil shortages led oil companies to tap into resources far from home, and Socal transported the first batch of crude oil in 1934 from Bahrain to Japan. Again during World War II, Standard Oil Company of California’s ships were under the control of the U.S. government’s War Shipping Administration. Following World War II, Socal continued exceptional growth, acquiring a variety of oil and chemical companies that enabled it to tap into new markets such as the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The dissolution and subsequent acquisition of a portion of the company Caltex in Western Europe allowed Socal to obtain 33 tankers from the company, bringing it to the forefront of the international tanker business. In 1977 came the formation of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a merging of these organizations to produce one of the largest oil companies in the U.S., and its shipping company Chevron Shipping. In 1985, Chevron U.S.A. acquired the Gulf Corporation, which made Chevron the operator of the world’s largest oil-company-owned fleet. Chevron Shipping operates all over the world, from the Middle East to the Gulf of Mexico. The distinctive Chevron symbol was adopted by the Standard Oil Company of California in 1931 to catch the eye of motorists seeking gasoline for their cars and to reflect the quality of their products. This symbol eventually led to the name ‘Chevron’ being used for Socal’s products and caught on so well that the company itself was eventually renamed to ‘Chevron’. (Research, Rebecca Hernandez)