Getty Oil

Fate	Bought by Lukoil
Successor	Lukoil
Key people	J. Paul Getty - founder

Getty Oil is an oil company founded by J. Paul Getty. It was at its height during the 1960s. In 1971, the Getty Realty division was formed to manage the real estate needs of Getty stations. The division was later spun off, but now owns the rights to the Getty brand.

In 1984, Texaco bought Getty Oil of Tulsa, Oklahoma. On November 19, 1985, Pennzoil won a US$10.53 billion verdict from Texaco in the largest civil verdict in US history. (Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had already entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.) In the end, only some of the refineries changed hands, and Getty continued to exist.

Getty gas stations survived the buyout. At one time, some were co-branded with Mid-Atlantic convenience store chain Uni-Mart, which now sells its own brand of gasoline.

In November 2000, Russian oil company Lukoil purchased Getty Marketing, which had been spun off of Getty Realty, and in 2003 converted a small number of Getty stations to Lukoil. In 2004, Lukoil bought many Mobil stations from ConocoPhillips, which had bought the stations from ExxonMobil in 2000. ExxonMobil sold these stations off due to an antitrust settlement soon after Exxon and Mobil merged. These stations were converted to Lukoil quickly for legal reasons.

According to Getty Realty's 2006 annual report, Getty Realty owns the Getty trademark and trade name in the United States and licenses them to Getty Marketing (owned by Lukoil). In Europe the trademark was owned by Texaco before Olaf Westerhoudt acquired the rights in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.

At one point, Getty Oil owned a majority stake of ESPN, before it was sold to the American Broadcasting Company in 1984.

[edit] References

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As of August 2009, many Getty stations in New England have been converted to BP or are in the process of doing so. Evidence of converted stations can could be found in Providence, RI, Athol, MA, Woburn, MA, Bloomfield, CT, and Salem, NH.

[edit] External links

• Getty's Official Site
• LUKOIL's U.S. Site
• Getty Realty's Official Site