Texaco Trinidad - Robert Yarnall Richie Collection

Duration: 33:55:00

Year Published: 1960s

Sound: silent

Description: This industrial footage, most likely shot in the late 1950s or early 1960s, captures Texaco Trinidad business operations and a special ceremony in Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad. It also highlights the local community, from Texaco Trinidad employees at work to adolescents playing cricket to a labor march. Originally known as the Texas Fuel Company, Texaco was established in Beaumont following the discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901. By 1928, it became the first American oil company to sell its gasoline nationwide under a single brand name. Texaco expanded its operation to what was then the British colony of Trinidad and Tobago in the 1940s. Its subsidiary, Texaco Trinidad, took full ownership of the Caribbean operation in 1957. Trinidad and Tobago achieved independence in 1962 and became a republic in 1976. Trintoc, a state-owned oil company, acquired Texaco Trinidad in 1985. Robert Yarnall Richie, who shot this film, was a freelance industrial photographer and filmmaker who worked with various large corporations in Texas and around the globe.