Caution! seethe legal stuff)

• 1870 The usual Oil Firm is based in Cleveland, Ohio by John D. Rockefeller.
• 1875-1878 Rockefeller acquires management of eighty% of the full US refining capability via alliances with different refiners.
• 1881 Commonplace Oil Trust is formed, combining the pursuits of forty corporations below a single board of trustees.
• 1882 An improved trust is formed and headquarters for it are established in New York City.

Here are a few of the companies I feel have been part of the belief:

• 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act makes monopolistic practices unlawful.
• 1906 US government recordsdata suit in opposition to Standard Oil with Sherman Anti-Belief laws

1911 Discovering Commonplace Oil Belief in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the US Supreme Court docket orders its break-up. The standard Oil Co., Rockefeller’s original company, is proscribed to the Ohio market.

June 1, 1913 Customary Oil opens the World’s first automotive service station at Oak and Young Streets in Columbus, Ohio.

1928 Standard Oil Formally adopts the trade name Sohio. The Sohioan, a monthly worker publication, debuts at the beginning of 1929. Sohio acquires Latonia Refinery (in Kentucky on the Ohio River), initiates a analysis program, will increase advertising and will increase refinery production volume.

1930’s-1950’s Sohio dominates the Ohio refined products market.

1931 Sohio acquires Photo voltaic Refining Co. and its only asset, a 10,000 barrel/day refinery in Lima, Ohio. A low-priced grade of gasoline, ‘Hi-So Inexperienced’, is added to the road of X-70 and Sohio Ethyl. Like its predecessor, Purple Crown, the brand new grade is a low octane, straight-run product

• 1952 Sohio Employee Funding Plan (SEIP) begins
• 1954 Boron Supreme gasoline is introduced
• 1955 Premex, a yr-spherical premium motor oil, is launched

1956 Opens a service station in Newport, Kentucky below the name of the Boron Oil Co., a wholly owned subsidiary. Outdated Ben Coal is acquired.

• 1957 Sohio Research develops an progressive single-step method of acrylonitrile production.
• 1958 X-Tane, Ohio’s largest-selling gasoline, is replaced by Extron. Toledo Refinery Built-in Unit, a $forty,000,000 expansion mission, starts up

1962 Boron Oil Co. launches full-scale entry into Western Pennsylvania market. Whole Boron stations in states surrounding Ohio number about 450.

1963 Proudfoot consulting agency is hired to enhance productivity. Their suggestions outcome in the reduction of approx. 1/3 of the non-union workforce. Hiring is diminished to minimum.

1966 #1 Works in Cleveland is shut down. #2 continues to provide some lubricants

1968 By three,one hundred service stations Sohio gasoline gross sales (in Ohio) exceed those of their nearest 5 rivals mixed. Fleet-Wing, a subsidiary, markets by way of approximately 250 stations, principally in Ohio. Dan begins work within the Lima Refinery laboratory.

1969 Refinery union staff strike as a part of a nationwide strike of most services represented by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Employees trade union. This gives firms the chance to check their new ‘Emergency Working Process’, which briefly replaces hourly workers with exempt personnel.
Arco acquires Sinclair. To adjust to the FTC consent decree, Arco sells some Sinclair properties. BP acquires Sinclair’s retail outlets in sixteen eastern states from Maine to Florida, over 450 bulk plants, 44 terminals and related transportation services, 2 refineries (in Port Arthur, TX and Marcus Hook, PA).
Administration publicizes Sohio will acquire the North American belongings of BP under a merger plan that ly exhibits a switch of fifty one% ownership to BP when Alaskan oil reaches 450,000 BPD. Dan moves to Toledo Refinery laboratory.

1970 Sohio/BP merger consummated but requires sale of 1,000 Sohio service Stations. Alton Whitehouse, who headed the authorized staff that negotiated the merger, becomes President of Sohio. Sohio expands into hotel, restaurant and truck stop operations.

1970-72 Sohio borrows 35 instances its net value to finance its share of Alaskan Oil project

1972 Customary Oil of latest Jersey modifications its name to Exxon. Sohio replaces the ‘Extron’ gasoline brand with ‘Octron’ to keep away from confusion.

1973 OPEC flexes their muscles. Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act enacted.

1974 Planning started for ‘PACTEX’, a system that may ship Alaskan oil from Lengthy Seaside, California to Texas through pipeline

1976 ? Although most refineries settle labor contracts without incident, Toledo Refinery workers strike, partly because of negotiating blunders by native management.
Old Ben Coal is twelfth largest coal producer within the US
Whole company employees quantity roughly 21,000.

1977 Oil flows from the Alaskan Pipeline, producing unprecedented profits. After practically 20 years of inactivity, corporate hiring expands dramatically.

1978 Plans for the Sohio Constructing (an apparent Alton Whitehouse shrine) are introduced. In June, BP positive aspects ownership of fifty five% of Sohio when Sohio’s share of Alaska Oil quantity reaches 600,000 bbl/day.

1979 PACTEX plans are scuttled- failure blamed on unreasonable environmental restrictions. Rumors circulate that environmental permit application deadlines had been missed because a Sohio supervisor’s briefcase was lost throughout a late-night time binge. The person was subsequently promoted! Concurrently, federal government considers approval of sending Alaskan oil to Japan in commerce for OPEC oil. Some, including California Governor Jerry Brown, recommend this change would remove Sohio’s curiosity in PACTEX and was the true purpose for the cancellation. Dan strikes to Cleveland Dwelling Workplace in refinery technical help workers.

1980 Toledo Refinery union employees strike. Business Week publishes an article that predicts future issues for Sohio because “the corporate has ballooned in measurement so all of the sudden that it lacks the staff, experience and funding vehicles to make decisive use of its cash”.

1981 Company coffers overflow. Desperate to invest $2 Billion accumulated in banks, Sohio buys Kennecott Copper, paying twice the present inventory worth. World copper market collapses. Sohio stock plummets from $140/share to $35/share. Lengthy-time workers, closely invested in SEIP shares, lose a whole lot of hundreds of dollars in every of their Sohio portfolio. Only 1 such individual admits to selling his shares on the peak, then buying them back at the underside. He was not standard along with his peers!

1982 Activists picket annual meeting and Alton Whitehouse at his country club. [article]

1982-1984 Though attrition has diminished the proportion of experienced personnel who had survived the 1963 massacre, division empire-constructing swells employment rolls with recent MBA graduates from ‘Tier 1’ schools, most with little experience. Management Data Programs workers exceeds working models.
Sohio invests in superb artwork for new headquarters- commissions a sculpture of a rubber stamp- 48 ft tall!
A plan for decentralization/manpower reduction is started

1984 Gulf Oil merges with Customary Oil of California (SOCAL), with both rebranding as Chevron. To comply with the FTC consent decree, Chevron sells some Gulf properties. Sohio acquires four,four hundred Gulf retail shops (215 firm-owned) in eight southeastern states, 30 terminals, a lube blending plant, a coke-calcining plant and Alliance Refinery. Nearly 1,000 employees are retained by Sohio Oil of their existing positions.
After investing nearly $1 Billion , Sohio abandons Mukluk, the largest dry-gap ever, within the Beaufort Sea.
A survey discovered that Sohio’s exploration record was the poorest within the trade, with Sohio displaying the bottom ability to exchange ongoing production among oil firms of simitar dimension.
BP is nervous. Higher management is reorganized. Austerity strikes Sohio! Hiring slows.

1985 Complete company staff now quantity approximately fifty six,seven-hundred- 2.7 instances the quantity 5 years earlier. Corporate earnings down 14.8% [article].
Manpower discount plans are announced, lowering corporate employees by 450 jobs. A voluntary separation package deal, based mostly totally on early retirement advantages, is obtainable to the few skilled staff left. Dan retires, having seen the inevitable bleak future these actions will produce.
The company writes off the Kennecott Copper investment as part of a $1.15-billion cost against earnings in 1985’s fourth quarter.
Customary Oil of Indiana changes its name to Amoco.

1986BP fires the top 2 Sohio executives, Alton Whitehouse and John Miller. The brand new chairman and chief government is Robert B. Horton, forty six, a managing director of BP. Frank E. Mosier, 55, a regular executive vice president, was named president and chief working officer.
The Sohio Building is completed and Residence Office workers relocates, occupying 36 of forty five floors. The Sohio brand name is abandoned, apart from gasoline sales in Ohio, based on poor advice from consultants who steered a return to The usual Oil Co. model. The consulting firm, Lippincott & Margulies is still in business. Their web site incorporates this description of their historical past: “Lippincott was based in 1943 and is a member of Mercer, Inc., a Marsh & McLennan firm. The agency changed its name from Lippincott & Margulies to Lippincott Mercer in 2003 to reflect its expanded capabilities in model science consulting”. Some may recommend they have an identity crisis themselves!
Outdated Ben Coal, now the 14th largest coal company within the US, reduces employees by one-third and relocates headquarters from Lexington, KY to the new Sohio headquarters constructing.
Customary Oil Manufacturing Co. restructures, inflicting a reduction of about 550 staff from a total of three,650 staff.

1987 BP buys the portion of Commonplace Oil it did not already personal, once again reorganizes and assumes control as ‘BP America’. As a company, Sohio ceases to exist and the Sohio Constructing becomes the BP Building. Sohio is dead. Lengthy dwell Sohio! Oil prices collapse.

1988BP Replaces Robert Horton with James Ross, another government from Great Britain- Cleveland Plain Seller Mar. 6, 1988

1989 BP replaces the purple, white and blue Sohio ovals, once essentially the most recognized logo within the US, with redesigned BP shields ‘with an emphasis on the color green’.BP will get a single Model Name Wall Avenue Journal Jan. 6, 1989

1989 BP sells Kennecott to Rio Tinto1990 BP sells Outdated Ben Coal to Zeigler Coal- Zeigler to Horizon Pure Resources

1996 BP sells Marcus Hook Refinery to Tosco, who shut it down due to ‘labor issues’.
Premcor acquires Clark Refining and Advertising Inc.
BP sells Lima Refinery to Premcor

1998 BP acquires Amoco (??,000 staff), reuniting two former members of the usual Belief and restoring pink, white and blue ovals!
BP sells the BP Building. Dwindling workers, now occupying 6-eight floors, relocates to the Warrensville Laboratory site.

1999 Exxon and Mobil complete a merger announced in 1998.
BP Amoco strikes headquarters to Chicago, Illinois.

2000 BP Amoco acquires Arco (??,000 workers), reuniting with another former member of the usual Belief. BP drops Amoco from company name.
BP sells Alliance Refinery to Tosco.

• 2001 Phillips Petroleum acquires Tosco.
• 2002 Phillips Petroleum Firm and Conoco Inc. merge to create ConocoPhillips

2004 Horizon Natural Assets is bankrupt, bought by WL Ross and Company, the buyout fund led by Wilbur Ross created a brand new company, the Worldwide Coal Group and the Previous Ben Coal Company was liquidated2005 Valero Power Corp. acquires Premcor. The acquisition made Valero the biggest crude oil refiner in North America
An explosion at the BP Texas City, TX refinery kills 15 workers and injures more than 170 others. BP was charged with criminal violations of federal environmental laws, and has been topic to lawsuits from the victims’ households. The Occupational Security and Health Administration slapped BP with a then-record advantageous for a whole bunch of safety violations, and subsequently imposed a good bigger advantageous after claiming that BP had didn’t implement security enhancements following the disaster.

2007 Husky Energy purchases Lima Refinery2008 Husky Power purchases 50% interest in Toledo Refinery2010 BP America web site particulars: 5 refineries: Texas City, TX, Carson, CA, Cherry Level, WA, Whiting, IN and Toledo, OH. ; whole capacity for processing 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a day.
Services and products are bought through 11,seven hundred service stations across the country- contains Amoco, ARCO, BP and AM/PM retail shops and Castrol motor oil.
By way of numerous subsidiaries, operates about 10,000 miles of pipelines2013 BP America webpage details: BP has accomplished the beforehand announced sale of its Texas Metropolis, Texas refinery and a portion of its retail and logistics community in the Southeast U.S. to Marathon Petroleum Corporation;
4 refineries: Cherry Point, Wash., Whiting, Ind., Toledo, Ohio and Carson, Calif.total capability for processing 993,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
Announced an agreement to sell the Carson refinery and related logistics and advertising and marketing belongings within the region to Tesoro Company;Tesoro will purchase the 266,000 barrel per day refinery near Los Angeles as properly because the associated logistics network of pipelines and storage terminals and the ARCO-branded retail advertising and marketing network in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. The sale additionally contains BP’s pursuits in associated cogeneration and coke calcining operations. The closing is expected to happen before mid-2013.
Services are offered via eleven,000 service stations across the nation- contains Amoco, ARCO, BP and AM/PM retail outlets and Castrol motor oil.

Disclaimers:

This info is from my reminiscence, supplemented with info from different Internet sources. It’s not represented as fact and must be thought of opinion, thus protected by the Free Speech provisions of the United States Structure. Descriptions of people could also be my impressions of the roles they performed in Sohio historical past and will not be supposed to slander or defame them (though some definitely deserve such therapy!).