From Latin flÅ«ctuÄns, flÅ«ctuant- , present participle of flÅ«ctuÄre, to fluctuate; see fluctuate. adjective. 1  Subject to change or variation: variable: fluctuant oil prices. 2  Medicine Capable of being moved or compressed.3  Used of an abnormal mass such as a tumor or abscess. 4  Moving in waves.djective. 1  Subject to change or variation: variable: fluctuant oil prices. 2  Medicine Capable of being moved or compressed. 3  Moving in waves.
Like Gulf Oil, Texaco was founded in 1901 after a major oil strike at Spindletop near Beaumont, Texas. The company was officially incorporated as The Texas Company in 1902 and the word Texaco was first used as a brand (for asphalt, not gasoline) in 1903.
But several producing oil wells were drilled in 1895 by Joseph S. Cullinan, who later helped found the Texas Company, which became Texaco. The first well-equipped refinery in Texas was built at this field, and despite the early efforts at Nacogdoches, it is usually called Texas' first refinery.