Gulf Oil

History

1901–1982

The business that became Gulf Oil started in 1901 with the discovery of oil at Spindletop oilfield near Beaumont, Texas. A group of investors came together to promote the development of a modern refinery at nearby Port Arthur to process the oil. The largest investors were Andrew Mellon and William Larimer Mellon Sr., of the Pittsburgh Mellon family. Other investors included many of Mellon's Pennsylvania clients as well as some Texas wildcatters. Mellon Bank and Gulf Oil remained closely associated thereafter. The Gulf Oil Corporation itself was formed in 1907 through the amalgamation of a number of oil businesses, principally the J.M. Guffey Petroleum Company, Gulf Pipeline Company, and Gulf Refining companies of Texas. The name of the company refers to the Gulf of Mexico where Beaumont lies.

Output from Spindletop peaked at around 100,000 barrels per day (16,000 m3/d) just after it was discovered and then started to decline. Later discoveries made 1927 the peak year of Spindletop production, but Spindletop's early decline forced Gulf to seek alternative sources of supply to sustain its substantial investment in refining capacity. This was achieved by constructing the 400-mile (640 km) Glenn Pool pipeline connecting oilfields in Oklahoma with Gulf's refinery at Port Arthur. The pipeline opened in September 1907. Gulf later built a network of pipelines and refineries in the eastern and southern United States, requiring heavy capital investment. Thus, Gulf Oil provided Mellon Bank with a secure vehicle for investing in the oil sector.

Gulf promoted the concept of branded product sales by selling fuel in containers and from pumps marked with a distinctive orange disc logo. A customer buying Gulf-branded fuel could be assured of its quality and consistent standard. (In the early 20th century, non-branded fuel in the United States was often contaminated or of unreliable quality).

Gulf Oil grew steadily in the inter-war years, with its activities mainly confined to the United States. The company was characterized by its vertically integrated business activities and was active across the whole spectrum of the oil industry: exploration, production, transport, refining and marketing. It also involved itself in associated industries such as petrochemicals and automobile component manufacturing. It introduced significant commercial and technical innovations, including the first drive-in service station (1913), complimentary road maps, drilling over water at Ferry Lake, and the catalytic cracking refining process (Gulf installed the world's first commercial catalytic cracking unit at its Port Arthur, Texas refinery complex in 1951). Gulf also established the model for the integrated, international "oil major", which refers to one of a group of very large companies that assumed influential and sensitive positions in the countries in which they operated. In 1924, it acquired the Venezuelan-American Creole Syndicate's leases in the strip of shallow water 1.5 kilometers (0.93 mi) wide along the Lake Maracaibo east shore.

Marketing and promotions

In the late 1930s, Gulf's aviation manager, Major Alford J. Williams, had the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation construct two modified biplanes, cleaned-up versions of the Grumman F3F Navy fighter, for promotional use by the company. Wearing Gulf Oil company colors and logos, the Grumman G-22 "Gulfhawk II", registered NR1050, was delivered in December 1936, and in 1938 Maj. Williams flew it on a tour of Europe. A second scavenger pump and five drain lines were added to the engine installation that allowed the aircraft to be flown inverted for up to thirty minutes. This aircraft is now preserved in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. A second airplane, the Grumman G-32 "Gulfhawk III", registered NC1051, was delivered on May 6, 1938. Impressed by the Army Air Force in November 1942 for use as a VIP transport and designated a UC-103, it crashed in the southern Florida Everglades in early 1943.

Gulf Oil was the primary sponsor for NBC News special events coverage in the 1960s, notably for coverage of the U.S. space program. It also became a sponsor for a program called NBC News Special Report. The logo even appeared on the front cross-shaped desk of every special event and coverage broadcast by the network and it was notably used by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley or the other correspondents since the 1964 Republican National Convention. The company used the connection to its advantage by offering giveaway or promotional items at its stations, including sticker sheets of space mission logos, a paper punch-out lunar module model kit, and a book titled "We Came in Peace," containing pictures of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Gulf was also a major sponsor of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, which also aired on NBC. Disney magazines and activity books were often given away with a gas fill-up. Gulf was also noted for its "Tourgide" road maps.

One particularly memorable Gulf advertisement carried by NBC during their coverage of the Apollo missions showed aerial and onboard views of the Universe Ireland with Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers singing "Bringin' Home the Oil" – a tribute to the opening of Gulf's operations in Bantry Bay.

In 1937, Gulf Oil became involved in racing when they purchased the racing car project of Ira Vail and Harry Miller and brought the project into the Gulf Research and Development Company. This produced innovative new cars that were the designs of Miller which became the first mid-engined cars to race in the Indianapolis 500. The cars also featured four-wheel-drive which was very novel at the time, disc brakes and a supercharged 6-cylinder engine. The only notable restriction was that the engine needed to run on standard Gulf pump fuel. Four of the cars were built with 3-liter engines and one was entered in the 1938 "500" but did not qualify as much testing was needed to get the car to the point of being ready for competition. Three of the Gulf-Miller cars were entered in 1939 with one, driven by George Bailey making the race with a second-row qualifying position. Another of the cars was crashed in practice and the third didn't attempt qualifying. The Bailey car dropped out of the race with a broken valve. In 1940, a fatal practice accident caused the team to withdraw. In 1941, two of the Gulf cars qualified but one was destroyed in a race morning garage fire and the other dropped out of the race early. Gulf sold the car in 1946 to Preston Tucker who ran it as the "Tucker Torpedo Special" that year in its last race appearance.

Demise

By 1980, Gulf exhibited many of the characteristics of a giant corporation that had lost its way. It had a huge but poorly performing asset portfolio, associated with a depressed share price. The stock market value of Gulf started to drop below the break-up value of its assets. Such a situation was bound to attract the interest of corporate raiders, although a corporation in the top 100 of the Fortune 500 was in the early 1980s thought immune to takeover risk.

Its undoing as an independent company began in 1982 when T. Boone Pickens, an Amarillo, Texas, oilman and corporate raider (or greenmailer), and owner of Mesa Petroleum, made an offer for the comparatively larger (but still considered "non-major" oil company) Cities Service Company (more generally known by the name Citgo) from Tulsa, Oklahoma which was then trading in the low 20s. Pickens first privately offered $45 a share for a friendly takeover and then later made a $50 a share public offer when Cities' CEO rejected the friendly offer. Gulf forestalled Mesa's takeover attempt by offering $63 a share in a friendly offer which Cities (by then trading at $37) accepted. Cities then bought out Pickens for $55 a share. Once Pickens was gone, Gulf reneged on its buyout offer, supposedly over a dispute regarding accuracy of Cities Service's reserves, and the stock price of Cities plunged, triggering stockholder lawsuits as well as distrust for Gulf's management on Wall Street and among financing investment banks who bet big in assisting Gulf to defeat Mesa only to be left broke when Gulf backed out. Cities Service was ultimately sold to Occidental Petroleum, and the retail operations were resold to Southland Corporation, the operators of 7-Eleven stores. Gulf's termination of the Cities Service acquisition resulted in more than 15 years of shareholder litigation against Gulf (and later Chevron).

With declining margins in the industry and left without Citgo's reserves, Mesa and its investor partners kept hunting for a takeover target, only to discover while fighting Gulf for Citgo how increasingly top-heavy its portfolio and declining reserves were undervaluing its overall assets. They subtly but quickly acquired 4.9 percent of Gulf Oil's stock by early fall 1983, just shy of having to declare themselves and their intent at 5 percent to the SEC. In the ten days allowed to prepare the SEC filing, Mesa and its investor partners accelerated buying to 11 percent of the company's stock, larger than the founding Mellon family's share, by October 1983. Gulf responded to Mesa's interest by calling a shareholders' meeting for late November 1983 and subsequently engaged in a proxy war on changing the corporation's by-laws to minimize arbitrage. Pickens made loud criticisms of the existing Gulf management and offered an alternative business plan intended to release shareholder value through a royalty trust that management argued would "slim down" Gulf's market share. Pickens had acquired the reputation of being a corporate raider whose skill lay in making profits out of bidding for companies but without actually acquiring them. During the early 1980s alone, he made failed bids for Cities Service, General American Oil, Gulf, Phillips Petroleum and Unocal. The process of making such bids would promote a frenzy of asset divestiture and debt reduction in the target companies. This is a standard defensive tactic calculated to boost the current share price, although possibly at the expense of long-term strategic advantage. The target shares would rise sharply in price, at which point Pickens would dispose of his interest at a substantial profit.

Aftermath

BP, Chevron, Cumberland Farms and other companies that acquired former Gulf operations continued to use the Gulf name through the early 1990s. This caused consumer confusion in the US retail market as the parent companies would not accept each other's credit cards. All former Gulf stations franchised by BP and Chevron in the United States have since been converted to those names. Gulf Oil Limited Partnership (GOLP), based in Framingham, Massachusetts, has bought a license for North American rights to the Gulf brand from Chevron. Chevron still owned the Gulf brand, but was making almost no direct use of it. In January 2010, GOLP bought the entire brand from Chevron and began a nationwide expansion campaign. GOLP operates a distribution network reaching from Maine to Ohio. Most Gulf-branded filling stations in North America are owned by Cumberland Farms of Framingham, which owns a two-thirds interest in GOLP. In addition there are some independently owned franchises still operating under the Gulf brand within North America, such as Nu-Tier Brands, Inc., which is licensed by GOLP to blend and distribute Gulf-branded lubricants.

Gulf Oil International (GOI) owns the rights to the Gulf brand outside the United States, Spain & Portugal. It is now owned by the Hinduja Group. After they acquired a large share from the Taher family, a major Saudi Arabian family led by Dr. Abdulhadi H. Taher (former governor of the Saudi Petroleum and Mineral organization and board member of Aramco). GOI trades mainly in lubricants, oils, and greases. GOI is also involved in franchising the Gulf brand to operators in the petroleum and automotive sectors; Gulf-branded filling stations can be found in several countries including the UK, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Slovakia, Czechia, the Netherlands, Jordan, Finland, Armenia and Turkey. GOI has direct and indirect interests in a number of businesses that use the Gulf brand under license.

The Canadian exploration, production, and distribution arm of Gulf Oil was sold to Olympia and York in 1985. From 1992 it continued as an independent oil company (Gulf Canada Resources) until its acquisition by Conoco in 2002.

Most Gulf downstream operations in Europe were sold to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) in early 1983. The associated Gulf filling stations were converted to trade under the Q8 brand by 1988. However, attempts to sell Gulf Oil (Great Britain) to KPC failed because of irrevocable GOC guarantees given earlier in regard to bonds issued to finance the construction of refinery facilities in the UK. GO(GB) was taken over by Chevron and its stations continued to use the Gulf brand name and insignia until 1997 when the network was sold to Shell, although by this stage a fairly large proportion of Gulf stations were supplied by jobbers rather than Gulf Oil (GB). Gulf completely withdrew from the UK in 1997. This represented the end of the last major "downstream" use of the Gulf brand by Chevron. In the UK, the Gulf brand is now licensed by Certas Energy (GB Oils), who also now own the Pace brand, which was coincidentally formerly owned by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

Revival

GOI and GOLP continue to sell Gulf-branded lubricants worldwide through a network of official licensed companies, joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiary companies. Many of these official Gulf distributors carry out local marketing and sponsorship with the intent to raise the profile of the brand. Of these wholly owned subsidiaries Gulf Oil Corporation India has increased the market profile of the Gulf brand in the Middle East. GOCL have emerged as one of leading lubricants brands in India and run many marketing sponsorships targeted at the youth sector in the country.

GOI licenses the Gulf brand and logo in the UK to the Bayford group, one of the largest independent fuel distributors. Starting in 2001, a new Gulf network of independent stations began appearing across the UK, many of which offered leaded "four-star" petrol, for which Bayford had a special dispensation to sell. At the same time, Gulf Lubricants (UK) Ltd was set up to market Gulf products in the UK, mostly manufactured by the Gulf Netherlands operation. This return by Gulf to the UK after a four-year absence used the slogan "The Return of the Legend". The post-2001 Gulf presence in the UK is a wholly network-based operation. It involves almost no direct Gulf investment in fixed assets, corporate infrastructure, or manufacturing capability. This is a complete contrast to the pre-1997 presence.

In January 2010, after using the name since 1986, Gulf Oil LP acquired all right, title and interest in the Gulf brand name in the United States and announced plans to expand the use of the Gulf brand beyond its parent company's Northeastern United States base. Its promotions have included sponsorship of major sporting events in the area with advertisements for Gulf in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. To take one case as an illustrative example of the Gulf revival, after Texaco's 2001 merger with Chevron, many former Texaco stations in Pittsburgh switched to Gulf since Chevron does not service the Greater Pittsburgh area. As a result, the Texaco brand name disappeared from the area in June 2004 when the nonexclusive rights agreement with Shell expired, with Shell itself expanding in the area by means other than Texaco. However, in June 2006, Chevron gave exclusive rights to the Texaco brand name in the U.S. In New England, former Exxon stations have been rebranded as Gulf, in accordance with the consent decree that allowed the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Many of the former Exxon stations feature a rectangular logo that fit into the existing sign standards used by Exxon. Gulf refers to the look as its "sunrise" imaging.

Marketing

The Gulf logo is still used around the world by various businesses. GOI uses it for their marketing activities to focus on the sponsorship of motorsport teams including MotoGP teams Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, Trackhouse Racing and Formula 1 teams McLaren and Williams. This sponsorship is used across the world by Gulf distributors, alongside local activity demonstrating the GOI company ethos of "your local global brand".

Gulf Oil has completed more than 14 years in partnership with the Indian Twenty20 cricket franchise, the Chennai Super Kings, making it among the longest for any sponsor-franchise association in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Gulf logo is used as the chest branding of the iconic yellow kit of the franchise since 2011.

In July 2020, GOI announced a multi-year strategic partnership with long time partner McLaren which includes Gulf being the preferred lubricant supplier to McLaren Automotive and a special Gulf livery for the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix. In February 2023, GOI announced a multi-year partnership with Williams Racing. For the 2023 Singapore, Japanese and Qatar Grands Prix, Williams raced a special Gulf livery chosen by a fan vote. In 2024, GOI and Williams announced a partnership extension and expansion to include GOI's coffee brand Reviva Coffee as the official coffee partner of Williams from 2025 onwards.

In 2023, Swansea City announced Reviva Coffee as the club's new main shirt sponsor. Gulf Oil have previously sponsored Swansea City between 1993 and 1996. For the 2025–26 season, Swansea City unveiled its third kit in Gulf colors.

Gulf products

Most filling stations in Europe sell three types of fuel: unleaded, LRP, and diesel. Although these products lack any real brand differentiation, this has not always been the case. Until well into the 1970s, Gulf (in common with other oil companies) sold distinctive brands of petrol/gasoline including subregular Gulftane (briefly a midgrade low lead), Good Gulf regular, Gulf No-Nox premium, Gulf Super Unleaded, and Gulfcrest (Regular Unleaded). Gulfcrest was also a super premium grade in the 1950s and early 1960s. Gulf petrol was sold using the slogans "Good Gulf Gasoline," and "Gulf – the Gas with Guts." Gulf service stations often supplied customers with pens and key rings bearing these slogans. For a few years, beginning in 1966, Gulf stations in the U.S. gave away orange plastic "Extra Kick Horseshoes" to customers who filled their tanks with Gulf's No-Nox premium fuel (the novelty items were commonly mounted on bumpers).

GOI still produces and sells a wide range of branded oil based products including lubricants and greases of all kinds. These include products for a variety of applications ranging from metal working oils to refrigeration oils. Car engine oils include the Gulf Formula, Gulf MAX, and Gulf TEC ranges. Heavy duty diesel engine lubricants include the Gulf Supreme and Gulf Superfleet ranges.

In the summer of 2013, Gulf Oil licensed the "Gulf" name for racing fuels in a return to the American racing scene for the 2014 competition season. The fuels were announced at the Performance Racing Industry Show in Indianapolis, Indiana, in December 2013. The racing fuels support the World Racing League and the Formula Atlantic Championship in the United States.

Leadership

President

Andrew William Mellon, 1907–1908

William Larimer Mellon Sr., 1908–1931

James Frank Drake, 1931–1948

Sidney Anton Swensrud, 1948–1953

William Kepler Whiteford Jr., 1953–1960

Ernest Delwin Brockett Jr., 1960–1965

Bob Rawls Dorsey, 1965–1972

James Edward Lee, 1973–1981

Edward B. Walker III, 1981–1986

Chairman of the Board

William Larimer Mellon Sr., 1931–1948

James Frank Drake, 1948–1953

Sidney Anton Swensrud, 1953–1957

David Proctor, 1958–1959

Ralph Omer Rhoades, 1959–1960

William Kepler Whiteford Jr., 1960–1965

Ernest Delwin Brockett Jr., 1965–1971

Bob Rawls Dorsey, 1972–1976

Jerry McDuffie McAfee, 1976–1981

James Edward Lee, 1981–1986