A procedure for reducing the interstitial oxygen content of virgin Czochralski silicon wafers is described. The process consists of oxidizing wafers in an HCl‐added dry oxygen ambient. The gettering action reduces the probability of oxygen precipitation throughout the bulk of the wafer and simultaneously provides a masking or passivating surface oxide. Since oxygen precipitates have been correlated with the nucleation of dislocations and stacking faults, which are known to adversely affect many devices, these gettering procedures may provide a means for overcoming some of the processing problems associated with large‐diameter high oxygen content Czochralski material.