America was on the move, and national television broadcasting made nation-spanning logo identity more important. Increasing effort was placed on market expansion as the Standards grew along with the new Interstate System. A major US marketing territory was sold, much to the chagrin of its hopeful buyer. This precipitated the last great Inter-Standard marketing war, and likely led to the Standard brand's declining use in the United States.
Socony-Mobil dropped its use
of the Vacuum name in 1955. The company concentrated on a name it
could market across the USA, Mobilgas. Esso stations still
served its home territory, making marketing as 'Standard'
difficult. General Petroleum and Magnolia Petroleum,
a Socony-Mobil affiliate made up largely of former Standard Oil
Trust companies, were absorbed into Socony-Mobil in 1959. In
1960, Mobil Chemical Company was formed, marketing various
petrochemical products from paints to plastics. The company
dropped the Socony name and became Mobil Oil in 1966.
Supposedly, the final straw for the Socony name came when Sacony
Fabrics sued Socony, saying thier name was registered first
(by six months) and there could be confusion. Sacony got a lot of
money and Mobil was now the company name. Around this time, the
"o" in Mobil went red
as a part of an advertising campaign, dropping the pegasus from
the signs, adding rounded pumps and pump islands.
Jersey Standard (Esso) added Pate and Oklahoma
to it's family of brands in 1956. In 1958, Indiana-based Gaseteria-Bonded
was purchased by Oklahoma and many of its stations were rebranded
Oklahoma. Humble became the holding company for all downstream
operations of Jersey Standard after they brought theremaining
stock in 1959. The company invented the 
Enco (the ENergy
COmpany) name in 1960 to allow marketing in other Standard
states, and started to use the brand at Pate, Oklahoma, and
Gaseteria-Bonded stations. Also in 1960, Sun Flash of
Columbus, Ohio was added to Esso holdings and re-branded Enco.
Sohio thought Enco was also too close in sound and appearance to
Esso, and so Jersey Standard, now commonly called Esso
Standard, decided to use their old Texas based Humble
name in Ohio. While Humble was appearing in Ohio, it was
disappearing in Texas and New Mexico with the introduction of the
Enco brand to that market in 1961. The loss of the Kyso marketing
area in 1961 to Chevron Standard was a severe disappointment to
Esso. Esso made a big push into Kyso territory, placing the Esso
brand back in the market by buying local independent chains and
adding the Esso name ... since Chevron Standard was not
using it. Chevron disagreed, saying the public still equated Esso
with Standard Oil. Esso had to de-brand quickly, becoming,
briefly 'Tiger' - using the Esso Tiger mascot as a sticker
covering the Esso name. The Tiger's popularity soared. Enco even
replaced Carter in the west in 1961. In 1967, the Enco name
replaced 'Tiger' (Esso) in the former Kyso territory. Also in
1967, Enco came to California with the purchase of Signal Oil
of California, formerly a secondary brand of Chevron.
Standard Oil of Ohio
(Sohio) expanded to neighboring states under the
extraterritorial name of Boron, one of its grades of
gasoline. Boron and Sohio brands received the company's final
logo in 1962, the modified light blue oval and bold red
lettering. In 1968, the Fleet-Wing brand was sold to another
former Standard company, Pennzoil. Sohio announced a merger with British
Petroleum in 1969. The merger involved the exploration and
development business areas at that time, focusing on Sohio's and
BP's new Alaska interests. Clauses in the merger allowed BP to
purchase an increasing interest in Sohio over time. BP purchased
Sinclair's divested east coast operations from Arco in 1969.
Standard
Oil of Kentucky (Kyso) was acquired by Standard Oil of
California (Chevron) in 1960. This cost Esso (Jersey) a large
market for its products. Esso had been planning on purchasing
Kyso themselves if it ever came up for sale. The Standard Oil
signs changed from 1950's era white letters on a dark background
to dark letters on a white background. They also used big blue
signs bearing the word "Standard". 
Esso countered
the Chevron purchase with a massive re-marketiing push of Esso
into Kyso territory. Chevron sued over use of Standard Oil (Esso)
and won. Esso finally had to use Enco in the southeast. The
former Kyso changed to the Chevron logo in 1971.
Standard Oil of
Indiana decided on a common logo in 1946,
combining the oval shape from subsidiary Amoco and the torch from
Indiana Standard. All stations were to use the new logo style,
with different text for each unit. Pan-Am Petroleum became Pan-Am.
Utah Oil Refining became Utoco, and Indiana Standard /
Standard Service and Nebraska Standard became simply Standard.
International sales used Amoco, but the US Amoco domestic
branch resisted adding the torch to its famous oval and held off
till 1954, when Amoco Torch and Oval signs started appearing.
In 1956,
the Pan-Am brand was replaced by Amoco. 
Indiana Standard purchased
True's Oil Company (Rainbow stations) in 1960,
trying to add to its weaker west coast presence and started to
re-brand them to Utoco. In late 1960, Indiana Standard decided to
tweak its marketing strategy. Amoco and Utoco became American,
leaving Standard in the midwest and American for the rest of the
USA. Between its Standard and American brands on the
Torch-and-Oval sign, Indiana Standard was the first
"Standard" to expand its operations to the 48
contiguous US states. The energy crisis of the 1970's forced
Indiana Standard to pull back from many states where it had only
a marginal presence, largely abandoning the south central and
southwestern US.
Standard Oil of California (Socal)
started moving towards its own identity in the 1940's and
1950's, adopting the Chevron name as a fuel brand. The V
in Chevron acquired 'victory' wings during WW2 and kept them into
the 1960's. Chevron expanded, acquiring Standard Oil of Kentucky
in 1960. The Standard name was maintained in the new
territory as well as the old, with the addition of a Chevron logo
in the former Kyso territories by the late 1960's. You can often
spot old Socal stations in the background of Adam-12 reruns. 
The Caltex
brand was discontinued in Europe in 1967. The stations were split
between Chevron Europe, Texaco, and a few local
companies. Caltex continued to market in Africa, Asia and
Australia.
Among the other former Standard companies:
Ashland Oil added Galena-Signal
Oil Company to its collection of former Standards in
the late 1950's. 
Atlantic
purchased Hondo Oil and Gas in 1963, then merged with
Richfield Oil of California in 1966, creating the Atlantic
Richfield COmpany, a.k.a. Arco. Arco
is responsible for the discovery of oil on Alaska's north
slope in 1968. Arco purchased Sinclair Oil in 1969
and absorbed it, divesting Sinclair's eastern US
marketing overlaps with Atlantic. BP purchased those
locations. In 1973, Arco ceased marketing in the
southeastern US. 
The Ohio
Oil Company purchased Tower Oil of
Cincinnati in 1958 and Detroit-based Speedway 79
in 1959. The Aurora Gasoline Company was
also added in 1959. The Ohio officially changed its name
to Marathon Oil in 1962 and retired its runner
logo in favor of the big red 'M'. In 1962, Plymouth
Oil came under the control of Marathon, adding Pow'r
Pak'd and Hi-T jobbers in the southeast, but
those did not last. In
the 1970's, Marathon attempted to expand along I-75,
sticking close to the Interstate exits. The oil crisis in
the 1970's stopped this experiment. The oil crisis also
resulted in the resurrection of the Speedway name.
Removed from Detroit in the 1960's, it was applied to
Marathon's high volume gas only stations. The concept was
sucessful, and similiar operations - Cleveland's Gastown
and Oshkosh's Consolidated were added to Marathon
in 1971 and 1972, respectively. Bonded of
Springfield, Ohio was added in 1975. 
Pennzoil maintained
its small gasoline distribution business while
concentrating on the lubricants business. A controlling
interest in Elk Refining was purchased in 1952,
adding Keystone stations to the company. In 1955,
South Penn completed the purchase of Pennzoil and Pennzip
started to be replaced by the Pennzoil brand. Pennzoil
Oil had sufficent exposure and the gasoline marketing was
no longer an issue. In 1963, Pennzoil purchased Gulf
Coast Oil producers Stetco and Zapata. Wolf's
Head Refining and its gas stations were also
purchased in 1963, as well as completeing the Elk
purchase. All the company's stations were re-branded
Pennzoil in 1965, and the National Transit Company
was added to its holdings in 1965. In 1968, Fleet-Wing
was purchased from Sohio. Within five years, most of its
stations were re-branded Pennzoil. In 1973 Pennzoil
purchased Pennsylvania Refining Company, adding
its Penn-Drake and Pennreco stations to its
network. Standard Oil pre-1911 . Standard Oil in 1911 . Standard Oil in 1941 . Standard Oil in 1961 . Standard Oil Today . Standard Oil Worldwide
If you any have thoughts, comments, additions, or suggestions, Click here to E-mail Robert V. Droz, who maintains this site.
This
page first posted July 12, 2001.
This page last edited Thursday, February 15, 2007
"Travel the route of friendly service." - Standard (New York) slogan
LEGAL NOTE: The use of oil company logos and names on this website is meant to educate, illustrate and clarify, and is not meant as a challenge to the copyrights of the companies represented on this site, their predecessors, or their successors. Research and commentary © 2004 R.V. Droz.