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 | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type |
|
| NYSE: COC (1998–2002)[1] | |
| Industry | Petroleum |
| Predecessor |
|
| Founded | November 25, 1875 in Ogden, Utah |
| Founder | Isaac Elder Blake |
| Defunct | August 30, 2002 (as a company) |
| Fate | Merged with Phillips Petroleum, remaining as a brand |
| Successors |
|
| Headquarters | Westchase, |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | |
| Owner | Phillips 66 Company |
| Website | conoco.com |
Conoco (/ˈkɒnəkoʊ/ KON-ə-koh),[2] formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase neighborhood of Houston, (Harris County), Texas. The brand is one of the several successors of the original Standard Oil Company ("oil trust" founded 1870 by industrial titan John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937). Conoco was a subsidiary of that dominant petroleum company from 1884 until its 1911 divestiture when the United States Supreme Court in the federal national capital city of Washington, D.C. in a major significant anti-trust legal case ruled to decouple and break up the monopolized entity of Standard Oil.
Alongside Phillips 66 and 76, it operates as one of the major fuel brands of the Phillips 66 Company.[3] Of those two brands, Conoco has a more dominant presence of gas refueling stations in the markets of the states of Colorado, Texas, Montana, Missouri, and Oklahoma in the Midwestern United States, as well as a growing presence in Eastern Pennsylvania following taking over the retail contracts of several Gulf Oil locations there, while having a complete absence in states such as California to the west and Florida to the far southeast.[4]
Continental Oil, originally based in Ogden, Utah was founded by Isaac Elder Blake in November 1875 as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company and was acquired nine years later in 1884 by the increasingly dominant Standard Oil Company (nicknamed the "oil trust", established 14 years earlier in 1870, by John D. Rockefeller, Sr. 1839-1937).
Eighteen years after Standard Oil’s federal court-ordered dissolution of 1911, Marland Oil Company (founded in 1921 by E. W. (Ernest Whitworth) Marland (1874-1941), oilman, businessman and later politician of Pennsylvania and later Oklahoma), would then acquire Continental Oil, moving its headquarters to Marland's home town of Ponca City, (Kay County), Oklahoma, in 1929.
As the Continental-Marland acquisition took effect, Marland Oil favorably phased out its own personal name and rebranded itself into the more nationally known titles of Continental and Conoco nameplates. As it eventually became one of the largest oil companies in the United States, Conoco further expanded its operations globally during the decade of the 1970s.[5]
Similar to other oil companies during the 1970s energy crisis, initially caused by the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo, Conoco’s operations were negatively impacted and so in 1981, Conoco then the ninth-largest American oil company at the time, was embroiled in one of the most expensive corporate takeovers in U.S. history when the Mobil Corporation and Seagram attempted to acquire the company. The DuPont company, of Wilmington, Delaware who was conjured up by Ralph Bailey (the C.E.O. of Conoco at the time) was brought in and hired as a so-called "white knight"[6] and would eventually emerge triumphant defending Conoco from the two vendors (corporate predators).[7] DuPont’s acquisition of Conoco at US$1.5 billion dollars, made it the largest merger in U.S. history upon to that time, surpassing that of the earlier Shell Oil’s acquisition of the Belridge Oil Company at USD$3.5 billion dollars in 1979.[8] Almost two decades later, in 1998, DuPont and Conoco announced their intentions to split which was commenced when DuPont sold 30% of its interest that year and the remaining 70% the following year in July 1999, officiating their corporate separation.
For many years, the company would operate its own oil refineries until 2002 when it was merged with the Phillips Petroleum Company to form ConocoPhillips. A decade later, ConocoPhillips would then divest its downstream operations that consisted of its gas stations refueling operations under the brands of Conoco, Phillips 66, and 76. The divestiture would eventually commence and the spin-off that contained the downstream operations of ConocoPhillips went under a separate company known as the Phillips 66 Company.[3]
- ^ "Conoco to cut 975 jobs – Dec. 29, 1998". money.cnn.com. CNN. CNN Money. 29 December 1998. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ "NLS Other Writings: The ABC Book, A Pronunciation Guide". National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
- ^ a b "Phillips 66 to Roll Out New Brand Images". Convenience Store News. Ensemble IQ. Convenience Store News. 15 July 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ "Number of Conoco gas stations in the United States in 2023". Scrapehero. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ "The Business Journal Interview with Ryan Lance, CEO and chairman of ConocoPhillips (Video)". Houston Business Journal. CNN. American City Business Journals. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ Gaines, William R. (1996). "Pre-Reorganization Continuity of Interest and the Historic Shareholder Concept: J.E. Seagram Corp. v. Commissioner". The Tax Lawyer. 50 (1) (50 ed.). American Bar Association: 249–263. JSTOR 20771863. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ Rowe Jr., James L. (6 August 1981). "Du Pont Wins Costly Fight Over Conoco". The Washington Post. New York City, New York: Nash Holdings. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
- ^ Noble, Kenneth B. (18 August 1981). "TAKEOVER OF CONOCO BACKED BY DU PONT'S SHAREHOLDERS". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 November 2023.