MOBILGAS

Mobil was the first oil company in Australia. It began as Vacuum Oil, opening the Queen Street, Melbourne, branch in February 1895, less than 30 years after Vacuum first started operations in the United States.Vacuum Oil's first salesman in Australia, Mr David Clarke, sold the company's first barrel of lubricating oil to a gold mining operation at Eaglehawk, near Bendigo, on his first day in the job.

In March 1904, Vacuum Oil was officially incorporated under Victorian Law as a proprietary company, and in 1906 the company issued Australia's first ever chart of "Recommendations to Motorists" covering about 200 makes of car. By 1908, Vacuum was growing rapidly and merged with the Colonial Oil Co, a company marketing kerosene and motor spirit, adding to Vacuum's specialty lubricant products. In 1916, Vacuum introduced its "Plume" and "Laurel" brands to the Australian market and a year later brought its first 100 gallon, horse drawn tank wagon into service.

As motor vehicles became more popular in Australia, Vacuum expanded its operations. In 1924 Vacuum opened its first bulk petroleum products terminal at Pulpit Point in Sydney and took delivery of its first imported bulk oil products cargo, a 1.5 million gallon shipment carried from the United States by the tanker "HT Harper".

A decade later, Vacuum introduced "Ethyl", Australia's first Super grade motor spirit. Around the same time in the US, Vacuum's parent company, Vacuum Oil Inc, merged with the Standard Oil Company of New York to become Socony Vacuum, then Socony Mobil that ultimately became Mobil Corporation.

Socony Mobil introduced the Flying Red Horse (Pegasus) logo. It appeared in Australia in 1939 and became one of Australia's best recognised corporate symbols.

In October 1946, Mobil began constructing the Altona oil refinery. The refinery commenced operations in June 1949, initially making lubricating oil and bitumen from imported crude oil.

A multi-million dollar expansion program that came on stream in December 1954, extended the refinery's product range into motor vehicle fuels and, in 1956, it produced Australia's first locally made aviation gasoline.

In 1958, Mobil unveiled plans to build an oil refinery at Port Stanvac, south of Adelaide, which came on stream in 1963. At the same time, Mobil announced the construction of a major petrochemical plant next to the Altona Refinery in Melbourne that produced its first products for sale in June 1961.

The discovery of vast reserves of crude oil and gas in Bass Strait in the early 1960's changed the Australian refining industry dramatically, as all companies changed to processing the locally produced oil instead of importing their raw materials.

In 1970 further expansion and modification of the Altona Refinery near Melbourne was completed, making it possible for Bass Strait crude to be processed in the plant. In 1973 MOA announced its return to the production of lubricating oils in Australia and commenced construction of a lubricating oil refinery alongside the existing Adelaide fuels product refinery. The lubricating oil refinery, the most modern one in Australia, opened in 1976.

In 1985, Mobil Oil Australia negotiated a major asset swap with BP Australia in which Mobil vacated the Perth retail market in exchange for acquiring a large portion of BP's South Australian, Victorian and New South Wales retail market.

Two years later, Mobil completed a major upgrade of its Yarraville bulk fuels terminal in Melbourne to create the most efficient and technologically advanced petroleum products terminal in Australia.

In late 1990, MOA announced the purchase of Esso Australia's refining and marketing operations. This gave MOA 100 per cent ownership of Petroleum Refineries (Australia) Pty Ltd, the company that operated both the Altona and Adelaide refineries. Completed in January 1991, the acquisition lifted Mobil to second place among the petroleum marketing and refining companies in Australia.

In December 1995 Mobil re-entered the West Australian market when it purchased the service station network and wholesale business of Amgas. A program of investment and expansion in Western Australia will take place over the next few years through upgrading the chain and building new sites.

Mobil has now embarked on a long term program to modernise its Altona Refinery, including the installation of a new catalytic cracking unit, to help make the refinery among Australia's most efficient. The modernisation will equip the refinery with new, ultra-modern process equipment designed to meet increasingly stringent environmental and product quality requirements and providing the flexibility to handle a wide range of crude oil feedstocks.