'Conoco Inc.' was an
American oil company founded in
1875 as the 'Continental Oil and Transportation Company'. Based in
Ogden, Utah, the company was a
coal, oil,
kerosene, grease and candles distributor in the West. The main office was later moved to
Ponca City, Oklahoma, when on June 26, 1929,
Marland Oil Company (founded by exploration pioneer
E. W. Marland) acquired for a consideration of 2,317,266 shares of stock, the assets (subject to liabilities) of Continental Oil Company. (1) At that time Marland Oil changed its name to Continental Oil Company. The acquisition gave Conoco the red triangle symbol previously used by Marland and would become Conoco's logo from 1930 to 1970 when the current capsule logo was adopted.
The company ran into early trouble when, shortly after acquisition, it was hit by the
Great Crash of October
1929. Nevertheless, Conoco became a key supplier to the
United States government during
World War II. Under the leadership of Leonard F. McCollum, Conoco grew from a regional company to a global corporation. Another rough patch for the company came during the
1970s oil crisis, from which it did not recover until
1981, when Conoco became a subsidiary of former rival
DuPont. In
1997 DuPont and Conoco parted ways. When the independent Conoco went public in October
1998, under the retooled name, Continental Oil Company, it resulted in the largest IPO in history. Conoco bought what was left of
Gulf Oil's Canadian operations in 2002. Conoco merged with
Phillips 66 in
2002. The merged company was announced as the now well-known
ConocoPhillips.
External link & References
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CONOCO Incorporation History
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Crisis & Independence: 1972 - 2000
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About ConocoPhillips
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The Conoco-Somalia Declassification Project at College of DuPage
1. Moody’s Industrial Mannual, 1960
"E. W. Marland: Life and Death of an Oil Man", John Joseph Mathews. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, (1951): ISBN 0806112887.