Chrono/stremfel/dt1st/mark2nd
Arco Through the Years
1866 Atlantic Petroleum Storage Co. founded in Philadelphia
1905 Richfield Oil Corp. founded in Los Angeles
1917 Richfield opens its first service station at Slauson and Central avenues in South Central L.A.
1929 Richfield builds landmark 12-story office tower at Sixth and Flower streets in downtown L.A.
1931 Richfield slides into receivership
1936 Richfield undergoes financial reorganization
1963 Atlantic Petroleum acquires Hondo Oil & Gas Co. from Robert O. Anderson
1965 Anderson elected chairman of Atlantic Petroleum
1966 Atlantic merges with Richfield, forming Atlantic Richfield Co.
1968 Arco and partner Exxon strike oil on the North Slope of Alaska, the biggest strike ever in the Western Hemisphere
1969 Arco acquires Sinclair Oil Corp.
1972 Headquarters moves from New York to Arco Plaza in downtown L.A.
1977 First tanker load of North Slope crude delivered to refinery
1979 Arco introduces AM/PM mini-marts
1982 Credit card sales end
1984 Arco becomes leading gasoline marketer in the West
1985 $3.2 billion in assets sold in massive restructuring
1986 Robert O. Anderson retires, Lodwrick M. Cook becomes chairman/chief executive
1987 Arco Chemical spun off through initial public offering
1989 Nation’s first environmentally engineered gasoline, EC-1, introduced; Lyondell Petrochemical spun off through initial public offering
1990 Net earnings top $2 billion for the first time
1991 Lower 48 operations restructured, 1,300 jobs eliminated
1994 Mike R. Bowlin promoted to chief executive
1995 Lodwrick Cook retires, Bowlin adds chairman title
1996 Arco starts up China’s largest offshore natural-gas field, signs major production deal in Algeria
1997 Joint venture entered into with Lukoil, Russia’s largest oil company
1998 Arco announces it will lay off 900 workers and moves its headquarters out of Arco Plaza and into a nearby downtown L.A. tower
1999 BP Amoco agrees to buy Arco for about $25.7 billion