Caltex was founded in 1936 as the California Texas Oil Company, and is currently one of the major international brand names of Chevron Corporation. Operating across some 60 countries in Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa, it is particularly dominant in the Australian market. In South Africa, Caltex owns a major refinery in Milnerton, Cape Town, and a manufacturing plant in Durban. Caltex was frequently criticised for its South African operations during the apartheid era.