ARCO is a brand of gasoline stations owned by Marathon Petroleum. BP, which formerly owned the brand, uses it in California, Oregon and Washington, while Marathon has rights for the rest of the United States and Mexico.[1]
ARCO was established in 1966 as the Atlantic Richfield Company, an independent oil and gas company formed from the merger of Atlantic Petroleum and the Richfield Oil Corporation.
History
From 1966 to 2000, the Atlantic Richfield Company, doing business as ARCO, was an independent American oil company with operations in the United States, Indonesia, the North Sea, the South China Sea and Mexico.[2] After its acquisition of Anaconda Copper Mining Company in 1977, ARCO had owned hard rock mines in several western states, which has created environmental clean-up liabilities to the company to this day even after the mines were closed in the early 1980s.
In 2000, BP Amoco (now BP) acquired ARCO for $26.8 billion.[3][4] ARCO's retail and marketing operations were kept separate while the rest of the company was integrated into BP.
In 2012, BP sold its Carson refinery, 800 ARCO stations in California, Arizona and Nevada, and the ownership of the ARCO brand to Tesoro for $2.5 billion while paying Tesoro for an exclusive license for use of the ARCO brand on its stations in northern California, Oregon and Washington which will be continued to be supplied from BP's Cherry Point Refinery in Washington state.[5]
BP has retained the Atlantic Richfield Company as a subsidiary to handle environmental claims against BP for the clean-up of former Anaconda mine properties.[6][7]
Early period
ARCO was formed by the merger of East Coast–based Atlantic Refining and California-based Richfield Oil Corporation in 1966; the company's name is an acronym of the two companies' names. A merger in 1969, brought in Sinclair Oil Corporation.[2] In the 1970s and 80s, ARCO was one of the largest companies in the world, consistently a top 20 company of the Fortune 500.[8] After its subsequent fracture in the late 1980s and early 90s, ARCO became a subsidiary of UK-based BP plc in 2000 through its BP West Coast Products LLC (BPWCP) affiliate.[9]
Leadership
President
- 1) Thornton F. Bradshaw, 1966–1981
- 2) William F. Kieschnick Jr, 1981–1985
- 3) Lodwrick M. Cook, 1985
- 4) Robert E. Wycoff, 1986–1993
- 5) Michael R. Bowlin, 1993–1998
- 6) Michael E. Wiley, 1998–2000
Chairman of the Board
- 1) Robert O. Anderson, 1966–1985
- 2) Lodwrick M. Cook, 1986–1995
- 3) Michael R. Bowlin, 1995–2000
ARCO service station brand
Currently, the brand name ARCO is being used by Marathon Petroleum as a brand of gasoline service stations in the United States and Mexico. In Northern California, Oregon, and Washington states, the ARCO brand is licensed for exclusive use to BP for the sale of gasoline in those areas.
Any independent station can adopt the ARCO brand in any territory that is covered by the Marathon Petroleum distribution network outside the BP territories of the northwest.
It has more than 1,300 gas stations in the western part of the United States,[41] and recently (as of 2017) five gas stations in northwestern Mexico.[42][43]
History
After the Atlantic Richfield Company acquired Sinclair Oil in 1969, Atlantic Richfield decided to merge their three separate service brands into one and call it ARCO. $60 million was spent in the rebranding effort.
See also
- ARCO Arena (1985) and successor venue ARCO Arena (currently the Sleep Train Arena) in Sacramento, California
- Conoco-Phillips Building in Anchorage, Alaska originally the ARCO Tower
- Harold Harby, employee of Richfield Oil and member of the Los Angeles City Council for all but one year from 1939 to 1957
External links
- Official website as an independent company (archived)
References
- Llega Marathon Petroleum a primeras 200 gasolineras ARCO en México Oil & Gas Magazine 16 Dec 2020^
- Atlantic Richfield Chemical and Oil (ARCO) (American oil company) Britannica Online Encyclopedia, retrieved 9 October 2015^
- BP Amoco's $26.8B deal CNN Money, April 1, 1999