Texaco

While local black ministers planned to urge motorists today not to buy Texaco products, area Texaco dealers said yesterday they hadn't felt much impact from the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's call for a boycott of their stations.Meanwhile, the NAACP, which has given Texaco Inc. 30 days to develop a plan to improve its treatment of minorities, outlined its demands to the oil company and threatened to launch a stock divestiture campaign if they are not met.The Rev. John L. Wright, president of the United Missionary Baptist Convention, said his group and others, including the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, would call for a boycott at a morning news conference in Baltimore.

Undeterred by an apparently dry well in northeastern Virginia, Texaco wants to cross the Potomac River into Maryland to continue its search for natural gas or oil in the Chesapeake Bay region.Texaco officials say the company and a new partner plan to seek permission to drill an exploratory well 10,000 feet down in a cornfield less than 1 1/2 miles from the Potomac in Charles County.Texaco and Eastern Virginia Gas Co. want to begin drilling by next fall at a three-acre site they have leased west of U.S. 301 about a half-mile south of Faulkner, said Texaco spokeswoman Deborah Alford.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources yesterday denied all appeals of its decision to let Texaco drill an exploratory well in Charles County, setting the stage for a court battle with environmentalists.DNR officials released a letter refusing a request by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for a new public hearing on Texaco's drilling permit. The letter said that the Annapolis-based environmental group lacked legal standing in the issue and dismissed as speculation the group's fears that discovery of gas or oil might harm the bay.DNR denied two other appeals on similar grounds, spokesman Rob Gould said.

HORNER, Va. -- The whirling yellow rotor head that drove pipe more than a mile into the earth stopped suddenly yesterday.It pulled away from the floor of the drilling rig, lifting the end of the pipe high into the air as three roughnecks in gray coveralls stood ready with giant mechanical wrenches.Quickly the roughnecks moved in, twisted the coupling at the end of the pipe away as the mud lubricating the drill bit slopped onto the floor. Then they carefully attached another 30-foot length of pipe.

ANNAPOLIS -- The state Department of Natural Resources granted a permit yesterday for Texaco to sink an exploratory well in a soybean field in Charles County about 1 1/2 miles from the Potomac River.The Chesapeake Bay Foundation had opposed allowing the search for oil or natural gas, fearing that it would lead to production of the fuels and potential damage to the environment in the event of an oil spill.But Torrey C. Brown, DNR secretary, said yesterday that he has imposed rigid safety controls on the oil company.

State officials have decided to let petroleum giant Texaco Inc. drill an exploratory well in Southern Maryland, but environmentalists vow to fight it as a potential threat to Chesapeake Bay.At a news conference in Annapolis today, Department of Natural Resources officials announced approval of a permit to Texaco.The permit allows Texaco to drill 10,000 feet deep in a farm field near Faulkner in Charles County, where oil company officials say they expect to find natural gas rather than oil -- if they find anything at all.The company is drilling a similar exploratory well across the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Va., according to DNR officials.

HORNER, Va. -- The whirling yellow rotor head stopped short and began to pull away from the floor of the drilling rig yesterday, hauling thick, black pipe high into the air as three roughnecks in gray coveralls stood ready with giant wrenches.Quickly, the roughnecks moved in, twisted two sections apart as mud slopped over onto the floor, then carefully lined up another 30-foot length of pipe braced in a long holder. The rotor head, suspended from a huge block and tackle, came back down.Once again the roughnecks clamped shut the jaws of the wrenches to secure the connection.

NEW YORK -- An unfolding scandal at Texaco Inc. widened yesterday as federal prosecutors in White Plains opened a criminal investigation to determine whether senior company executives illegally destroyed documents sought in a discrimination lawsuit, people with knowledge of the situation said.Already, subpoenas have been issued seeking a number of pieces of evidence including original audio tapes secretly recorded by a former Texaco employee. In the tapes, senior executives can be heard discussing plans to shred records and belittling the company's minority employees with racial epithets.

The Chevron Corp. agreed yesterday to acquire Texaco Inc. for about $36 billion, creating the world's fourth-largest oil concern. The companies' boards approved the deal, which is expected to be announced today, executives close to the transaction said. It comes during a period of high oil and gas prices and much political jostling in the United States and abroad to keep those prices in check. The acquisition will likely come under intense scrutiny by regulators, who could force the combined company to divest certain assets, especially in states like California where the company would dominate the retail gas station business.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Texaco Inc., faced with continuing low oil prices, said yesterday that it will cut 1,000 oil-exploration jobs as part of an effort to save $200 million in annual costs.The third-biggest U.S. oil company said the job cuts, equal to about 5 percent of its total work force, will be completed by March. Texaco will shed 750 U.S. jobs and 250 abroad, primarily in Britain, said Chris Gidez, company spokesman. Texaco also said it will reorganize its oil-exploration division effective Jan. 1.Forecasts are that oil prices will remain low next year.