Liberty Oil is an Australian

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

distributor and retailer. It is owned and operated by

Viva Energy Viva Energy Australia is a listed Australian company that owns the Geelong Oil Refinery and is licensed to retail Shell-branded fuels across Australia under a licence agreement. It also owns and retails fuel through Coles Express, OTR, Reddy Ex ...

who also own

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

Reddy Express Reddy Express, formerly Coles Express, is an Australian chain of convenience stores at Shell Australia petrol stations. Until it became controlled by Viva Energy in May 2023, Coles Express was a trading name of Coles Group. Then in September ...

OTR OTR or Otr may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Off the Record with Michael Landsberg'', a sports talk show * Old-time radio, a broadcasting era * Otierre, an Italian hip hop band Science and technology * Ocular tilt reaction, a form of sk ...

. It is known as a subsidiary of

History

Liberty Oil was founded in 1995 by David Goldberger and David Wieland, who had previously founded

Solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''Star Wars Legends'' continuity * Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), a ''Star Wars'' character * Napoleon Solo, fr ...

in 1974, before selling it to

Ampol Ampol Limited is an Australian petroleum company headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales. Ampol is the largest transport energy distributor and retailer in Australia, with more than 1,800 Ampol-branded service stations across the country . Amp ...

in 1989. Goldberger and Wieland had been subject to a ten year

non-compete clause In contract law, a non-compete clause (often NCC), restrictive covenant, or covenant not to compete (CNC), is a clause under which one party (usually an employee) agrees not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in competition again ...

however this was ruled void by the

Trade Practices Commission The Trade Practices Commission was an agency of the Government of Australia responsible for monitoring and enforcement activities under the Trade Practices Act 1974. It was superseded by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission in 1995.< ...

when Ampol merged with Caltex. In July 2001, Liberty leased 69 of its sites to Woolworths which were rebranded as Woolworths Plus Petrol. At this stage it had an 8% market share of the Australian petrol market. In August 2014,

purchased a 50% shareholding, taking full ownership in February 2019. As part of Viva Energy taking full ownership, Liberty Oil Convenience was established as a new

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

to operate the existing Liberty retail network with Viva Energy owning 50% (non-controlling), and Goldberger and Wieland the balance. Viva will gain rights to fully acquire the joint venture in 2025. As Viva Energy also operates Shell-branded stations in Australia, Liberty accepts the Shell Card used in Shell stations. , it operates 284 service stations.

References

External links

Liberty OilLiberty Oil Convenience
* {{commons category-inline Automotive fuel retailers in Australia Companies based in Melbourne Energy companies established in 1995 category:Retail companies established in 1995 1995 establishments in Australia