Mobil Oil Corporation
Mobil Oil Corporation, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its name after it and Mobil merged in 1999.
A direct descendant of Standard Oil, Mobil was originally known as the Standard Oil Company of New York after Standard Oil was split into 43 different entities in a 1911 Supreme Court decision. Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Company, from which the Mobil name first originated, in 1931 and subsequently renamed itself to "Socony-Vacuum Oil Company". Over time, Mobil became the company's primary identity, which prompted a renaming in 1955 to the "Socony Mobil Oil Company", and then in 1966 to the "Mobil Oil Corporation". Mobil credits itself as the first company to introduce paying at the pump at its gas stations, the first company to produce aviation fuel, as well as the first company to introduce a mobile payment device, called Speedpass.
In 1998, Mobil announced it was merging with Exxon to form ExxonMobil, reuniting the two largest descendants of Standard Oil. The technicalities of the merger, which was completed on November 30, 1999, showed that Exxon bought Mobil, and Mobil shareholders received a payment of stock in Exxon. Mobil continues as a brand name within the combined company, as well as still being a gas station sometimes paired with its own store or On the Run. Mobil's brand name is primarily used to market motor oils, such as Mobil 1. The former Mobil headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia, was used as ExxonMobil's downstream headquarters until 2015 when ExxonMobil consolidated employees into a new corporate campus in Spring, Texas.
History
Brands
Mobil continues to operate as a major brandname of ExxonMobil within the ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties division. Many of its products feature the Mobil symbol of a red winged horse, Pegasus, which has been a company trademark since its affiliation with Magnolia Petroleum Company in the 1930s.The Mobil brand now mainly covers a wide range of automotive, industrial, aviation and marine lubricants. For historic reasons, the Mobil brand is still used by Mobil service stations and for fuel products.
There are four main Mobil sub-brands:
Mobil Gasoline
Mobil is ExxonMobil's primary retail gasoline brand in California, Florida, New York, New England, the Great Lakes and the Midwest. The Mobil brand is also used to market gasoline in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and Guyana.The Mobil brand has a significant market presence in the following metropolitan areas:
- New York metropolitan area
- Detroit
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- Minneapolis-St. Paul
- Boston
- Buffalo
- St. Louis
- Tampa-St. Petersburg
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale
- Rochester-Syracuse
- Orlando
- Milwaukee
- Providence
- Albany
- Hartford
Also in the 2010s, Mobil stores have made an increased presence in Colorado, particularly in the Denver area, and in areas of northwest Oregon, southwest Washington, and northern California.
Exxon is the primary brand in the rest of the United States, with the highest concentration of Exxon retail outlets located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana and in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states. Esso is ExxonMobil's primary gasoline brand worldwide. Both the Esso and Mobil brands are used in Canada, Colombia, Egypt, and formerly Japan and Malaysia, in which the latter were rebranded as Petron in 2013, and ENEOS for the former in 2019, separately. In Esso stations in Hong Kong and Singapore, the Mobil brand is used on fuel tanks, along with Esso.
Mobil 1
, the successor to the Mobiloil brand, is a brand name of Exxon/ESSO Mobil. It was introduced in 1974 as a Multi-grade 5W20 viscosity synthetic motor oil. The brand now includes multi-grade motor oils, oil filters, synthetic grease, transmission fluids, and gear lubricants. The Esso and Exxon motor oil brands have largely been discontinued.Mobil Delvac
Mobil Delvac is a range of heavy-duty lubricants designed for commercial vehicles. The range includes engine oils, transmission fluids, drivetrain lubricants and various greases.Mobil Industrial
Mobil Industrial is a sub-brand of ExxonMobil for marketing oils and greases used in industrial applications. The main product lines are Mobil SHC synthetic oils and Mobil Grease greases.On the Run Convenience Stores
Mobil expanded the sale of convenience store items first pioneered at its discount gasoline stations under the Mobil Mart brand. Mobil continued to refine and enhance its convenience store offerings with the On-the-Run brand, which proved to be much more popular. In 2009, 450 On the Run stores in the United States was sold to Alimentation Couche-Tard, operator of the Circle K convenience store chain. Some other On the Run locations in the United States were sold to 7-Eleven in 2011. ExxonMobil continues to own the On the Run stores worldwide.Former brands
Discount gasoline stations
Mobil rebranded numerous stations to the Hi-Val, Reelo and Sello discount gasoline brands after major price increases following the 1970s oil crisis made a significant number of consumers extremely price conscious. The stations were converted Mobil stations selling convenience store items in the station lobby, while the service bays were rented to customers for do-it-yourself auto repairs. These brands were discontinued in the 1980s, after the gasoline market had recovered.Mobil Travel Guide
The Mobil Guide was an annual book of hotel and restaurant recommendations based on a system developed by Mobil in 1958. It rated businesses from one to five stars according to their assessed quality. In October 2009, ExxonMobil licensed the brand to Forbes magazine, which retitled the guide's various designations, e.g., Forbes Travel Guide, Forbes Five Stars, and so on. Forbes launched revised versions of various guides in late 2009.Mobil outside of the United States
Mobil UK
Vacuum Oil Company started selling lubricating oils in Europe in the late 19th century. In 1885, the company established its European marketing organization in Liverpool, setting up small works in 1896 and 1901. By the 1930s its Mobiloil had become one of the main brands. Mobil gradually expanded its operation into fuels retailing as well, and opened its first UK service stations in the early 1950s, after the wartime POOL monopoly was disbanded. Mobil grew to become the seventh largest brand of petrol in Britain, supplying 1,990 outlets in 1965, and claimed in the mid-1960s to be the first company to operate 100 self-service stations. As well as its downstream interests, Mobil was active in the North Sea and operated an oil refinery in Coryton, on the Thames estuary. In 1996, Mobil's fuels operations in Europe were placed into a joint venture 70% owned by BP, and the Mobil brand disappeared from service stations. Mobil continued to sell lubricants through BP and independent service stations. Following Mobil's merger with Exxon, at the start of 2000 BP acquired all the petrol retailing assets as well as the Coryton refinery. Mobil returned to being purely a lubricant brand in Europe, and became the premium quality oil on sale at Esso service stations.Mobil Australia
The Vacuum Oil Company began operating in Australia in 1895, introducing its Plume brand of petrol in 1916. The Flying Red Horse logo was introduced in 1939, and in 1954, the Plume brand was replaced by Mobilgas.Mobil Australia's corporate office is in Melbourne. In 1946, Mobil began construction of its refinery at Altona, in Melbourne's western suburbs, which originally produced lubricating oils and bitumen, before commencing the production of motor vehicle fuels in 1956. A second refinery at Port Stanvac, south of Adelaide, came on-stream in 1963, but was closed in 2003. Mobil commenced removal of the refinery in July 2009, together with site remediation works.
File:Mobil and McDonald's McCafe Leeton.jpg|thumb|350px|Mobil station and McDonald's restaurant in Leeton, New South Wales, Australia, in 2008
In 1985, Mobil swapped its Western Australian retail market with a large portion of BP's South Australian, Victorian and New South Wales retail market in a major asset swap. In 1990, Mobil acquired the service station and refining network of Esso Australia. This also resulted in Mobil's full ownership of Petroleum Refineries Pty Ltd, which also operated the Altona and Adelaide Refineries. In December 1995, Mobil re-entered the West Australian retail fuel market when it purchased the Amgas service station network and related business.
On 27 May 2009, Caltex Australia announced it would be acquiring 302 Mobil service stations in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide, subject to approval of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. The ACCC subsequently announced its opposition to the takeover, citing the likelihood of increased fuel prices due to diminished competition.
On 27 May 2010, 7-Eleven announced that it had acquired Mobil's Australian network of 295 service stations, with fuel still to be supplied by Mobil. At the same time, it was announced that out of the 295 stations, 7-Eleven had sold 29 South Australian service stations to Peregrine Corporation. Peregrine's acquisition saw Mobil's sites in South Australia rebranded to On the Run convenience stores, but they continued to be supplied by Mobil until most were switched to BP. Meanwhile, since January 2012, all fuel in 7-Eleven stores is supplied by Mobil. 7-Eleven store renovations and openings since 2014 have included prominent placement of the Mobil logo, usually underneath the 7-Eleven logo, on main signage as well as on petrol pumps.
After the 7-Eleven sale, Mobil has since returned to the country with its own-branded service stations., Mobil operates 229 own-branded service stations across the country; the majority in the Australian east coast and South Australia. There were also a few in Western Australia.