Pete Nersesian's BRAIN CLUTTER ARCHIVE

Amoco

The 1911 breakup of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust begat a baffling array of petrochemical-related companies. Those with a major retail presence were given their own regional marketing territories in which they could sell products under the Standard name (and had to, in order to retain their territorial rights). In all others, another brand name had to be used.

Some simply adapted the Standard name -- Standard of New Jersey, the ancestor of Exxon, used the pronunciation of the initials S. O., spelled "Esso." Standard of New York (later Mobil) used the acronym Socony. California Standard was one of those which used the Standard brand in its home base, and another elsewhere (Chevron).

Although the company made its name in oil, Amoco was once also famous for its candles.

Since candles were almost exclusively made of paraffin wax - a by product of the refining process - it made sense for the company to get involved in the industry.

The candle factory in Whiting, Indiana operated from 1893 to 1956 and became synonymous with American quality.

From March 18 to December 19, 1918, the company's entire production of six and eight inch candles was purchased by the Army for use in the trenches.

Just after World War II the Whiting Candle Factory enjoyed its peak years accounting for about 10% of all candles bought in the United States.

But eventually, as candle sales declined, the factory was closed in favour of Amoco's more lucrative interests.

from the bbc

Standard of Indiana did the same, operating outside the midwest as "Amoco," an acronym of the American Oil Company, a company it had acquired in 1923.

Amoco's now-familiar logo, combining the oval mark of the American Oil Co. and the torch of Indiana Standard, debuted in its original form in 1946, but with the name of the subsidiary -- Standard, American, Utoco, or Pan Am* -- across the middle band. The brand was unified nationwide as Amoco in 1960, with only the Midwest stations remaining Standard. Standard Oil Co. (Indiana) formally changed its name to Amoco in 1985.

Like all businesses, petroleum companies trended toward increased globalization in the last few decades of the 20th century. For Amoco, this meant diversified mineral exploration around the world. The mid to late 90s, says its web site, "were highlighted by increased partnering."

In 1998, Amoco announced it would join with British Petroleum (BP) in the largest-ever industrial merger to date. The combined company announced that all stations in the US would carry the decades-old Amoco name. However, it soon became apparent that creating a unified marketing image under two well-entrenched banners wasn't going to work. One would have to go.

In March, 2000 BP-Amoco announced it would drop the Amoco brand entirely, utilizing the new lowercase "bp" logo on all its outlets, all but ending the long history of the Amoco name. In the short term, though, Amoco will have some minor reprieve at the rebranded stations. The company plans to continue to label certain specialty gasolines with the Amoco name, its logo shrunk to only a timid little presence on selected gas pumps.

Update!
BP swears it can explain
the whole thing!

A GREEN Amoco?!

* Pan American Oil Co., no connection to Pan American World Airways.

Information gathered for this page from Robert V. Droz's tremendous "Whatever Happened to Standard Oil?," John Cirillo's Gasoline Signs, BrandAware, and the official site of bp p.l.c.

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Endangered

The 2000 merger of Chevron and Texaco has led to speculation that Texaco will be eliminated as a US brand. The name would be kept, like Esso, for marketing in the rest of the world.

Texaco succumbed to the merger at the end of years of never quite getting back on its feet after a multibillion-dollar judgement against it stemming from its 1984 takeover of Getty, which itself was recently bought by Russia's giant LukOil.

Arco, once a national brand (and itself a spinoff of Standard Oil), sold off its operations east of the Rockies in the 1990s, and was acquired in 2000 by bp. It is speculated that the few remaining Arco outlets will follow in the footsteps of Amoco in being fully absorbed into bp's operations.

Photo from disasterrelief.org

	Where are they now?
	Standard:	Became:
	New Jersey	Exxon [was Esso, now Exxon-Mobil]

	New York	Mobil [was Socony/ Vacuum, now Exxon-Mobil]

	Indiana	Amoco [now part of bp]

	California	Chevron [was Socal, now ChevronTexaco]

	Rocky Mts. area	Conoco [about to become ConocoPhillips]

	Ohio	Sohio/Boron [now part of bp]

	Pennsylvania Delaware	Arco (Atlantic- Richfield Co.) [was Atlantic, now part of bp]
	There were many others, too. For the full incestuous story, visit Robert V. Droz's amazing site. He also references an excellent graph (315k jpg) of the evolution of Standard Oil.