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![]() The Amoco Building (now the Aon Center) housed the Amoco headquarters in Chicago | |
Amoco; Standard; and American | |
Formerly |
|
Company type | Public |
NYSE: AN (1985-1998) | |
Industry | Fuel |
Predecessor | Standard Oil |
Founded | 1889, as part of the Standard Oil Trust |
Founder | John D. Rockefeller |
Defunct | December 31, 1998 |
Fate | Merged with BP, becoming a brand, but resurfaced in 2017 selling BP fuel. |
Successor | BP Amoco |
Headquarters | Amoco Building, |
Website | Archived official website at the Wayback Machine (archived February 12, 1998) |
Amoco (/ˈæməkoʊ/ AM-ə-koh) is a brand of fuel stations operating in the United States and owned by British conglomerate BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a refinery in Whiting, Indiana, and was officially the Standard Oil Company of Indiana until 1985. Originally part of the Standard Oil Company trust, it focused on producing gasoline for the new automobile market. In 1911, as part of the break-up of the Standard Oil trust, it became an independent corporation. Incorporated in Indiana, it was headquartered in Chicago, and formally adopted the name Amoco in 1985. Amoco Corporation merged in 1998, over the course of several years all Amoco and Standard stations were converted to BP. The Amoco name was branded at the gas pump for the highest 93 octane blends. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 tarnished the BP brand in the US resulting in a rethinking of US branding. Amoco was resurrected in 2017 beyond merely being a gasoline blend, as service station owners could choose to use the Amoco brand for station branding and supplies purchased from BP in selected areas of the United States markets.[2] This branding decision also allow for an increase in stations without flooding a particular market with a single BP name. This was consistent with marketing at Chevron and ExxonMobil and the utilization of the Chevron/Texaco and Exxon/Mobil brands.
In 1925, Standard Oil of Indiana absorbed the American Oil Company,[1] founded in Baltimore in 1910, and incorporated in 1922, by Louis Blaustein and his son Jacob. The combined corporation operated or licensed gas stations under both the Standard name and the American or Amoco name (the latter from American oil company) and its logo using these names became a red, white and blue oval with a torch in the center. By the mid-twentieth century it was ranked the largest oil company in the United States. In 1985, it changed its corporate name to Amoco.[3] Amoco merged with British Petroleum in December 1998 to form BP Amoco, renamed BP in 2001.[4]
The firm's innovations included two essential parts of the modern industry, the gasoline tanker truck and the drive-through filling station.[5] Its "Amoco Super-Premium" lead-free gasoline was marketed decades before environmental concerns led to the eventual phase out of leaded gasoline throughout the United States. Amoco's headquarters were located in the Amoco Building (also called the Standard Oil Building, and nicknamed "Big Stan", now the Aon Center) in Chicago, Illinois.[6]
In October 2017, BP announced reintroduction of the Amoco branded stations to select US markets.[7] As of 2023, there were over 600 new Amoco stations in the eastern and midwestern United States.[8]