Getty Oil Company was an American oil marketing company with its origins as part of the large integrated oil company founded by J. Paul Getty. They went defunct in 2012.

History

J. Paul Getty incorporated Getty Oil in 1942. He had previously worked in the oil fields of Oklahoma along with his father George Getty. When George died, he left J. Paul with $500,000 and a projection that he would destroy the family business. Starting in 1949, J. Paul Getty negotiated a 30-year concession in the neutral zone between

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

Gordon Getty Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork Light, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. When his father died in 1976, G ...

and his family inherited a 40% interest in the company when J. Paul Getty died in 1976. In 1984, after entering into a binding agreement to sell Getty and its 2.3-billion-barrel stockpile of proven oil reserves to Pennzoil, Gordon Getty struck a dramatic deal to sell the company to

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...

. On November 19, 1985, in the case of '' Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil, Co.'', Pennzoil won a US$10.53 billion verdict against Texaco in the largest civil verdict in U.S. history as a result of the violation of the binding agreement. Following extensive litigation seeking to overturn the verdict, Texaco filed for bankruptcy, after which Pennzoil agreed to settle the case for $3 billion. While the reserves were sold, only some of the refineries changed hands, and Getty continued to exist as a downstream entity. Getty gas stations in the Northeast were sold off as a condition of the buyout. The company became known as Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. In 1997, Getty Petroleum spun off a new company of its petroleum marketing and distribution segments. This new unit was sold to Lukoil in 2000, and Lukoil sold it to Cambridge Securities LLC in February 2011. Getty Petroleum filed for bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11) on December 5, 2011. At one point, Getty Oil owned a majority stake of

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, before Getty's purchase by

which then sold ESPN to ABC in 1984.

References

External links

{{Authority control Defunct oil companies of the United States Automotive fuel retailers Gas stations in the United States Convenience stores of the United States Companies based in New York (state) Companies based in Tulsa, Oklahoma Getty family Lukoil Texaco Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 Retail companies established in 1942 Retail companies disestablished in 2012 Energy companies established in 1942 Energy companies disestablished in 2012 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1942 1984 mergers and acquisitions