Esso
of 36 Queen Anne's Gate, London, SW1. (1951)
Also Esso A.G. of Germany
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. The name is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil Co which was split into 34 separate companies [1] after anti-trust action by the U.S. Government including:
- Standard Oil of New Jersey - later became Exxon Mobil
- Standard Oil of Ohio - Sohio
- Standard Oil of Indiana - Amoco
- Standard Oil of California - Chevron
- Standard Oil of New York - Mobil
1888 Anglo-American Oil Co was established as the UK distributor of the products of Standard Oil Company of America.
1921 Refinery opened at Fawley, Hants[2].
1938 Anglo-American Oil Co acquired a majority interest in Cleveland, an independent company. Cleveland's products included a benzole blend and an alcohol blend called Discol developed by Distillers Co. The Cleveland name continued in use until 1973, when the Cleveland filling stations were re-branded as Esso.
1951 Anglo-American Oil Co changed its name to Esso Petroleum Co Ltd.
1954 Esso increased its holding in Cleveland.
In the UK, Esso Blue was the brand name of Esso's paraffin oil (kerosene) for domestic heaters. Their TV advertising song from the 1950s through to the 1970s was the famous "Bom, Bom, Bom, Bom, Esso Blue!" A later campaign used the well-known song tune of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" cleverly reworded as: They asked me how I knew, it was Esso Blue, I of course replied, with lower grades one buys, smoke gets in your eyes. ... The non-smoking paraffin.
1958 Esso acquired the remaining shares in Cleveland Petroleum Products Co [3].
1964 Opened refinery at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire[4].
In 1973, the brand was largely replaced in the US by the Exxon brand, while Esso remained widely used elsewhere.
1999 Exxon took over Mobil to form ExxonMobil. In most of the world, the Esso brand and the Mobil brand are the primary brand names of ExxonMobil.