Trip Report: Standard Oil Saga

In the early 1900's the United States Supreme Court broke-up Cleveland-based Standard Oil Company due to antitrust and many of the successor companies received the rights to use the Standard Oil name but each only in certain states. Standard Oil of California had the rights out west and they later purchased Standard Oil of Kentucky to gain rights in the south. But they couldn't use the Standard name in other states so for marketing purposes they decided to use the Chevron name in all states they operate in. But to this day they maintain one Standard station in each of their states to preserve their legal rights to the Standard name. The one above on Tropicana Blvd. just west of I-15 in Las Vegas. We dropped-by during our Vegas visit last month. It's identical to the Chevron station one block away except all the signs say Standard. The California Standard station is in San Francisco. UPDATE: The Standard station in Florida is located at 610 SR 805 in Lake Worth Beach, FL. Big thanks to Phil Edwards for this amazing video: LINK

 

 

 

Standard Oil of Indiana is now BP and they keep their rights the same way, maintaining one Standard  station in each of their mid-America states where they were allowed to use the Standard name. Outside the midwest they used the same torch sign but with the Amoco name within it since they couldn't use Standard. In the past few years BP has returned to using the Amoco brand again. On one block you may see a BP station and nearby by an Amoco station but they are one and the same.

Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO) is also now part of BP but maintains SOHIO marinas along the Ohio River and in Lake Erie. This keeps the SOHIO brand in-use so no one else can claim it was abandoned. Originally, they could only use the SOHIO and Standard names in Ohio itself. In nearby states, they operated with that same design shown on the sign above but with the name BORON within it. 

Standard Oil of New Jersey got the rights to the Standard name in New Jersey and several northeast states and operated under the ESSO name which is pronounced S.O. for Standard Oil. In states where they couldn't use the Esso name, they operated under the same oval sign but with the Enco (including Florida) or Humble names. When it became too expensive to operate in different states under different names, they changed the name of all of them to Exxon. They later merged with Standard Oil of New York which originally had the SOCONY name but changed it to Mobil and to this day they operate under both Exxon and Mobil names. Apparently Chevron, which has the rights to the Standard name in Florida, does not object to Exxon again posting the Esso name at Florida stations such as the one above. Exxon also sells Esso Diesel in states where they have Standard rights. 

During the original breakup, Standard of New Jersey was also given worldwide rights to the ESSO name which is why you may see Esso stations in places such as the Bahamas above, Canada, Europe, etc. Marathon, Conoco, ARCO and Pennzoil are also products of that original breakup but are independent companies today with no Standard name use.