The former Standards consolidate further to compete in the global petroleum market, and marketing as Standard in the United States is not in the picture. The last company to widely use "Standard" on its US stations is sold.
Mobil created the Reelo
and Sello convenience store brands in the 1970's after the
oil crisis struck, finding more profits in convenience foods than
petroleum. These were discontinued in the 1980's, after the
gasoline market had recovered. Mobil's On the Run C-store
brand has proved to be much more popular. Mobil kept on the edge
of technical innovation, creating the electronic payment process
called Speedpass. Mobil merged with Exxon in 1999 to become ExxonMobil.
So far there are no plans to eliminate either the Exxon or Mobil
brand. Mobil's Pegasus is still an official company mascot. Exxon
has even adopted "Speedpass".
Esso /
Jersey Standard / Humble was not happy not being able to market
nationwide as Esso. Humble, still used in Texas and Ohio, did not
have the right zip to it either. Legend has it that Enco had a
bad sound or meaning in other languages. ("Stalled Car"
is the nicer transliteration I have heard.) The company
brainstormed, looking for a new name close to Esso, but with no
current meaning in any other languages. The search for a name
became known as "Project Nugget", after accusations
that the Enco and Humble names, the 'gold' they already had, had
been slighted in the process. Other proposed names included Enjay
(N-J, get it?), ECCO and ARCON.
Attempts by non-English speakers to pronounce the
linguistically awkward "Enjay" might be the source for
the Enco / stalling stories. Jersey searched for any legal means
to stay with Esso in the USA, but finally had to settle on Exxon. 
Starting in 1972, Humble /
Jersey Standard changed its name, and re-branded all their US
stations to this new corporate identity. Esso is still used by the
company outside of the United States, but the Standard name was
officially gone from the US operations of the former holding
company of the Standard Oil Trust. Reportedly, a few Esso
petroleum products are available only at stations in the old Esso
marketing area. Exxon merged with Mobil, the former Socony, in
1999. The resulting company is called ExxonMobil. The combined company is
keeping both companys' mascots, the Tiger and the Pegasus. Exxon
/ Esso has a long-standing commitment to the Tiger, and seems to
be the leading company in the merger. Mobil's Pegasus logo has a
history goes back to the pre-1911 Standard Oil Trust days.
2000:
The Tiger: ExxonMobil may not have plans to dump the tiger, but
it is under attack from Battle Creek, Michigan. Kellogg's wants
Exxon to stop using a tiger at its 'Tiger Mart' stores. They
claim only Tony can be associated with food products. While
Mobil's "On the Run" has a good following, there are
still TigerMarts.
Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) During the
1980's, British Petroleum (BP) increased its stake in
Sohio as Sohio invested in the Alaskan pipeline. In 1972,
BP/Sohio purchased McLean, VA-based Scot. Better
performing Scot stations were re-branded BP, lower performers
recieved Sohio's Boron. BP's attempt to use former eastern US
Sinclair locations for its own marketing were less than
successful. Most locations were sold to Fina (PetroFina) in 1973.
In 1984, Truckstops of America (TA) was purchased by Sohio. 
In 1984, BP/Sohio
purchased Gulf's southeastern marketing area from Chevron. Along
the way, Gas and Go in Michigan and Gibbs and Tulsa
in New England were added to the brand portfolio as well, though
Gibbs and Tulsa werre left alone and may have been sold off in
later years. The southeastern marketing area of Gulf started a
re-imaging to BP. In 1987, BP bought the remaining shares of
Sohio it did not yet own. Sohio became just one of the brands
owned by BP America, restricted by history to a single
state. In 1989, the BP brand started to spread across the USA,
starting in Tennessee with former Gulf and Boron locations. That
went so well that in 1990, there was a nationwide transition from
Boron, Wm. Penn, Gas-N-Go and Gulf to BP. That went less smoothly
and many re-branded stations closed. In 1991, Standard Oil
disappeared in Ohio, the red, white and blue re-done in green,
silver, and yellow as BP. In 1993, BP America sold TA to an
investment group. TA changed its name to TravelCenters of America
in 1997. bp's website refers to Sohio only briefly in the bp
history as 'Standard Oil of Ohio' or 'The original Standard Oil'.
BP America moved its headquarters from Cleveland to Chicago after
a merger with another Standard - Amoco. The enduring
legacy of old Sohio is a piece of public art. It is the worlds
largest rubber stamp. It was intended for Standard OIl
headquaters in Cleveland, Ohio. It was to say "Paid".
Before it could be installed, BP bought out the remainder of
Sohio. By the time the stamp was ready, BP had Amoco (Indiana
Standard) and acquired a nice new headquarters for BP America in
Chicago. The stamp was stored, and finally given to Cleveland as
a gift. Paid became Free.
Standard
Oil of Indiana decided to make Amoco
Oil Company its national brand and corporate identity in
1973. In 1974 the company started changing its American-branded
stations to the Amoco name. In the midwest, station owners were
given a choice of the new-look Amoco or the familiar and trusted Standard
name. 
Richie Kennedy of
"Kansas Highways" maintains one of the best collection
photographs of Standard Torch-and-Oval signs on the net, linked
here. The
company did not quit growing. It purchased Sing Oil in
1990 and Omega Oil of Ohio in 1996. BP America merged with Amoco
in 1998, becoming BPAmoco. Initial plans were to convert
all assets of both companies in the USA to the Amoco brand name.
BPAmoco assets in the rest of the world, including former Amoco
assets, were to become BP. In early 2000, BPAmoco purchased ARCO, which
survives as a brand name west of the Rocky Mountians. On March
16, 2000 BPAmoco announced it now planned to drop the Amoco half
of its name. The only remaining thing to be named
"Amoco" was to be the fuel. Amoco Ultimate is still the
leading premium brand of gasoline and has very high brand
loyalty. On July 24, 2000 the new bp logo was unveiled, a green and yellow 
"sunburst"
I believe it will be seen on ARCO stations in the future.* The official name for the
logo is Helios, evoking a 'sun' mural at bp's London
headquarters and hinting at the flame from Amoco's torch. The new
bp connect stations were slowly introduced into Amoco Standard
markets in the early 2000's, in a change from the drastic Sohio
to BP re-branding. The colors are green, yellow and gray. They
feature "Amoco fuels" with a tiny red, white and blue
stripe or Torch and Oval. The Dave Blaney NASCAR Amoco car
focused on the "Ultimate" gasoline brand in 2001, and
bp did not renew the racing team's contract for 2002. 'bp' has
primary corporate offices in London, England with a majority of
its stockholders being in the United States. As I understand
things, the company is no longer British Petroleum, either. Like
CBS, the anagram is now the company's identity. There is still no
word on if or how they plan to keep the Standard trademark alive,
or if it matters to them. I guess bp executives think of Esso as
Standard. ExxonMobil owns that venerable trademark in Great
Britain. bp has a long and storied history of its own, and may
have decided that continued ties to a disputed company trademark
may not be profitable.The possible company name "Beyond
Petroleum" was floated about in 2000, or maybe that was just
marketing.
2003 -
Some of the Amoco signs were getting raggedy, the change is
probably taking longer than expected. New Amoco signs have been
seen in some places. A mutant Helios-Amoco sign has been used by
a jobber in Florida, and BP and Amoco are touted in radio ads.
2004 - The torch and oval are almost gone America's
heartland, most Amoco stations that remain sport the new green
colors on the canopy. The southeastern US seems to be slower to
change than the rest of the company. A few historic
Standard/Amoco signs will remain, ones impractical to convert.
December
2004-
New signs have started to appear at Arco stations. The Arco spark
is still prominent, but bp's Helios is on the move. (Pictures of
the North Hollywood, CA Arco sign courtesy James Freedner.)
2005 - Amoco Ultimate gasoline (available at bp) is
advertised, but no other mention of Amoco. Few Amoco stations
remain, low volume locations or areas scheduled to be demolished
for highway construction. Oddly enough, bp never mentions being
British Petroleum in its US advertising. The name 'Beyond
Petroleum' keeps resurfacing, or is that still just a slogan?
It's hard to tell. Maybe that's the point.
2008 - It is possible that the last place a Torch and Oval
'Standard' sign will be in active use is Elmhurst, Illinois. The
Hi-Pointe Amoco sign in St. Louis, MO will even outlast that,
it's a landmark.
Standard
Oil of California 
(Socal) became Standard in
1970 throughout its marketing area along the southern US. In
1977, the company replaced Standard with Chevron. 'Chevron' became the corporate
identity in 1984. The corporation has a 
Standard station in every state
they have the rights for to ensure no one else will claim the
Standard brand name (Including Esso). The host cities for these
last Standards, as of 1997, were: Anchorage, AK; Honolulu, HI;
Bellevue, WA; Milwaukie, OR; Boise, ID; Midvale, UT; San Francisco, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Albquerque,
NM; El Paso, TX; Georgetown, KY; Vicksburg, MS; Birmingham, AL;
Atlanta, GA; and Miami, FL. Chevron expanded into the Northeastern
US by merging with Gulf Oil in 1984. 
Gulf Oil's Southeastern US
territories were sold to BP America and Northeastern stations
were sold to Cumberland Farms, who had operated
convienience stores in tandem with them.
October
2000: Chevron plans to merge with Texaco, creating a new
company: ChevronTexaco. So far there is no word on if the
'Standard' stations would remain, but the safe money is on the
company keeping an interest in them as long as Esso is Exxon's
primary brand name outside of the United States.
August 2001: ChevronTexaco is still a go, but the retail
side is tied up by Texaco's Equilon / Motiva deal with Shell.
October 9, 2001: 
ChevronTexaco is official. The results:
Chevron will be the company's brand in the United States and
Canada. Texaco will be the company's
brand in Latin America, Europe, and West Africa. Caltex, now wholly owned by
ChevronTexaco, will market where it already does in Australia,
East Africa, Asia, and across the Pacfic Ocean. Until 2004,
Texaco retail marketing in the USA will be done by Equilon/Motiva
(Shell / SaudiAramco).
February 2002: Cumberland Farms might be dropping its Gulf
marketing operation, Gulf Lubricants will be available from
ChevronTexaco.
January 2003: ChevronTexaco plans to market gasoline in
the eastern and southern United States under the Texaco name
starting in June 2004, delays by Shell in retiring the Texaco
brand have left it as a strong marketing property. The Havoline
brand of lubricants is enjoying something of a resurgance, as it
allows Chevron to keep the Texaco logo in the public eye.
2004 - Equilon/Motiva
converted as many Texaco station to Shell as possible in 2004,
but some jobbers kept the old company shingle out front and
converted to the new Texaco. ChevronTexaco re-expanded Texaco
markerketing to the US Western states, where it was very well
recieved. ChevronTexaco has offered credit cards for each company
and a dual-brand one that mirrors ExxonMobil and Equilon/Motiva's
Shell/Texaco. There are still quite a few Motiva/Shells out and
about, so you better be sure before pulling out the card.
April 2005 - ChevronTexaco announced a plan to merge with Unocal 
(formerly known as Union Oil of
California), an exploratrion and production company that formerly
marketed as "76". No name or logo changes are expected.
In fact, Unocal still uses the original orange 76
ball that ConocoPhillips turned red for domestic marketing.
May 2005 - First, ChevronTexaco
announced that Techron was going global. Every Caltex and
company-supplied Texaco would get this signature fuel additive.
Later in the month, the company announced a change in name and
logo to - Chevron
Corporation. Back to the future we go with a little
tweaking of the Hallmark logo. No logo changes have been
announced for the Texaco or Caltex brands. The "Standard"
branding has even taken a little face lift to match the new look.
June
2005 - The Chinese National Offshore Oil Company, or CNOOC,
offered a rival bid for Unocal . It was eventually withdrawn, clearing
the way for Chevron's lower but politically more palatable bid.
August 2005 - Unocal (76) is now a
Chevron company, but the 76 gasoline brand is still with Conoco.
This was for the upstream (production) part of the company.
Among the other former Standard companies:
Atlantic was reborn in 1985
after Arco spun off its eastern assets. This new Atlantic
owned the historic Atlantic refinery in Philadelphia. It
ended up purchased by Sunoco in 1988 and in 1994 was
re-branded Sunoco. A Chevron refinery (former Gulf) in
Philadelphia was also purchased. Atlantic's food mart
brand - A+ stores - has become the default food mart in
the Sunoco family. It is now used up and down the eastern
US in Atlantic's old territory. In 2003, Sunoco Race
Fuels became the official fuel of Nascar, replacing
ConocoPhillips' 76 brand, which had inhertited the 40
year old tradition from its purchase of Pure Oil of
Illinois in the 1960's.
Ashland Oil decided to focus its energy on
petrochemicals and merged its downstream marketing assets
with Marathon Oil's in 1998. (MAP LLC). Ashland sold its
interest in MAP to Marathon in December 2004, leaving
only a handful of stations still branded Ashland, at
least till the station owners get new signs. By 2005, the
gasoline brand was gone.
Conoco rebranded its Kayo stations Jet
in 1980, taking the name and black and yellow color
scheme from thier European subsidy. Mobil and Seagrams
looked at Conoco as a takeover target in the early
1980's. The winner of the Conoco derby in 1982 was
chemical giant DuPont. DuPont spun back off 30% of
the company in 1998, and completed the divestiture in
1999. Conoco is a fully independent company again. They
have also adopted a new mascot, the 'fast cat.' - a house
cat. 
In November 18, 2001: Conoco
announced it will merge with Phillips Petroleum. The resulting company is to be
called ConocoPhillips 
. Phillips Petroleum finished
acquiring Tosco (The Oil Shale COmpany) on September 17,
2001. The Tosco deal brought 76 and 
Circle K gasoline marketing brands under
the Phillips umbrella. It also made them a marketer for Exxon in Arizona and New England (old
Socony territory) and for Mobil in the Mid-Atlantic States (old
Esso territory). Tosco formerly marketed bp in the western US in the days
when bp owned Sohio but not Amoco. In December 2003, the
Circle K brand was sold to Couche-Tard (Mac's) of Canada. The
Exxon and Mobil locations were sold off as well. C-P also
now owns the rights to the 
Coastal brand in the
central US from Indiana to Wyoming and from South Dakota
to Oklahoma. Coastal's eastern marketing operations were
bought by Sunoco (see above). In Early 2004, the
76 brand was re-aligned and re-imaged, the original
orange logo color giving way to a ConocoPhillips red 
. Unocal continued to use the old orange
ball
in its corporate logo until
it was acquired by Chevron in 2005. Phillips also has
joint venture with another Standard, Chevron. 
CPChem is a joint venture with them in
the chemicals industry. ConocoPhillips markets in Europe
and Asia as Jet, a name that it had used
domestically and internationally in the past. The ProJET
brand first appeared in 1999 in Malaysia. 
Marathon (Ohio Oil) is still in operation.
In 1981, Mobil and other companies expressed an unwelcome
interest in purchasing Marathon. The company went looking
for a white knight, and in 1982 ended up with an unlikely
partner: US Steel. The combined company expanded. Checker
of Chicago was purchased by the company in 1983. Ecol
of Jackson, MS was purchased in 1984. Husky Oil of
Wyoming was also added that year. Webster / Value
of the Carolinas was also added to the still growing
company. An older name, Speedway, started to replace
Consolidated under the newly formed Emro Marketing
(Marathon Retail Operations), which favored keeping
regional brands where practical. Charleston, SC's Port
Oil was purchashed by Emro in 1984, Chamblee, GA's Globe
Oil was added in 1985, along with its Starvin'
Marvin brand, which Emro paired with Speedway as a
convenience store name. US Steel changed its name to USX
in 1986. Emro purchased Rock Island Refining in
1989, which added the Golden Imperial, Colonial-Progressive,
Tulsa and United brands. The Wake Up
was added, as well as the Martin brand. USX
separated Marathon's stock from its own in 1992. Marathon
has no corporate owned stations, all Marathons are
franchises. 
Marathon has been in a joint
venture with Ashland Oil for downstream operations since
1998 (MAP L.L.P.). Marathon-Ashland controls SuperAmerica, Speedway,
Starvin' Marvin, and any other old Emro stations as
well as supplying the company namesake stations,
Marathon. Recently, the Marathon brand has been expanding
in the Southeastern US, adding locations formerly
occupied by Texaco, Amoco, Spur, and Farm Stores. In
2001, US Steel was separated from the oil business. In
2002, USX Corporation became Marathon Oil Corporation.
Speedway SuperAmerica pulled back from the US northeast
and southeast in 2003. Sunoco acquired many former SSA
locations. Marathon bought out Ashland Oil in December
2004. Marathon's named stations have ties to the
venerable STP gasoline additives now.
Pennzoil agreed to merge with Getty Oil in
1984 but Texaco interfered, purchasing Getty Oil before
the merger was fully completed. Pennzoil sued and won,
then invested its settlement in exploration and refining,
keeping its focus on lubricants. Purchasing Jiffy Lube
in 1989 was part of that strategy. Gasoline was a
diminishing sideline for Pennzoil. Pennzoil spun off its
production assests to Pennzenergy Company in 1998. Also
in 1998, Pennzoil merged with Quaker State to form
Pennzoil-Quaker State. Pennzenergy was bought by Devon Energy in 1999, also acquiring Chevron
shares in the deal. In 2002, it was announced that Royal Dutch Shell Oil would purchase the company. In
2003, Pennzoil gasoline marketing reached a deal with
7-Eleven to add C-stores to its remaining locations. Of
course, many of those remaining few stations are
independently owned. In 2006, bp colors started to appear
on some of the few and the proud. This brand may not be
long for gas sales.
Sinclair Oil kept the dinosaur logo and list
Sinclair's pre-1965 history on their website, as if Arco
never happened. I'm still looking for pictures of the
Arco Spark style logo Sinclair may have used from
1970-1973.Standard Oil pre-1911 . Standard Oil in 1911 . Standard Oil in 1941 . Standard Oil in 1961 . Standard Oil Today . Standard Oil Worldwide
Credits:
Maps: 1930 South Dakota by Indiana
Standard, 1940 Maine to Florida by Amoco, 1941 Pennsylvania
by Standard of Pennsylvania (Esso cards were usable at Standard
Stations nationwide),
1942 California by California Standard
Books: Titan by Ron Chernow, Standard
Oil Company (Indiana) Oil Pioneer of the Middle West by Paul
H. Giddens, Standard Oil, The First 125 Years by Wayne
Henderson & Scott Benjamin, History of the Standard Oil
Company (New Jersey) 1882-1911, Pioneering in Big Business by
Ralph W. Hidy and Muriel E. Hidy, Formative Years in the Far
West - A History of Standard Oil Company of California by
Gerald T. White, Challenge and Response A Modern history of
Standard Oil Company (Indiana) by Emmett Dedmon, Wea Creek to
El Dorado: Oil in Kansas 1860-1920 by Francis W. Schruben,
The Esso Collectibles Handbook by J. Sam McIntyre, Sohioan
Jan 1945 75th Anniversary Special Editon, Selling Sohio, History
of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) 1911-1927, The Resurgent
Years by Evelyn Knowlton & George Gibb History of the
Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) 1927-1950, New Horizons by
H.M. Larson, E.H. Knowlton, and C.S. Popple, Growth in a
Changing Environment - A History of of Standard Oil Company (New
Jersey) 1950-1972 and Exxon Corporation 1972-1975 by B.H.
Wall, One Hundred Years Helping to Shape the Future 1879-1979
by Chevron, Span (magazine) Spring 1961 by S.O. Ind, Standard
Oil - The First 125 Years by W. Henderson & S. Benjamin, Conoco:
The First 100 Years by Continental Oil and Guide to
Gasoline Logos by Wayne Henderson and Scott Benjamin - An
incredible overview of gasoline marketing history. I can not
recommend this book highly enough.
Invaluable data (i.e. just about
everything else) provided by Mark Bozanich , Mark J. Cuccia , Francois Micheloud, S. Berliner, III, Mark Greaves and various oil company websites linked
throughout the site.
There was invaluable information at The Handbook of Texas Online and FindLaw.
Many of the corporate logos adapted from John
Cirillo's Gas Signs page,
others are from maps and other publications. More road map covers
are at Jon Roma's webpage.
Also thanks to Joe Urice, Jon Enslin, Bruce B. Reynolds, Mark
Potter, and Dan Swires whose knowledge and experience added to
and improved the information above.
You will enjoy Primarily Petroliana.
If you want to know more about the geology of oil and the oil
industry in general, try Gibson Consulting at www.gravmag.com
If you recently found an old gas or oil stock certificate and want to know what it is worth, check out Scripophily.com
This website featured in the August 11, 2000 issue of Network
Computing News.
U.S. Highways: From US 1 to (US
830)
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 Sunday, November 09, 2008
"You expect more from Standard, and you get it!" - Standard (Indiana) Trademark
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 © 2008 R.V. Droz, usable with permission.
