Tidewater Oil Company (rendered as "Tide Water Oil Company" from 1887 to 1936) was a major

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

refining company during that period. Tidewater was sold many times during its existence. Brands included Tydol, Flying A, and Veedol. The Veedol brand was owned by British Petroleum until 2011, when Veedol was sold by BP to Tidewater India. Now it is part of

Andrew Yule Andrew Yule (2 November 1834 – 18 July 1902) was a businessman who founded Andrew Yule and Co. Early life Andrew was born in Stonehaven- Fetteresso, Scotland, the third and youngest son of Robert Yule, a clothier, and his wife Elizabeth. He h ...

Indian group and manufactures automotive oil for the Indian market. Tidewater does not have its own refinery, so it is dependent on base oil suppliers like HPCL and BPCL, It manufactures a wide range of automotive lubricants.

History

US-NJ(1891) p564 BAYONNE, THE TIDE-WATER OIL COMPANY

Tide Water was founded in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1887. The company entered the

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

market and by 1920 was selling gasoline, oil and other products on the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

under its "Tydol" brand. In 1926, control of Tide Water Oil sold out to a new holding company, Tide Water Associated Oil Company, which also acquired a controlling interest in California’s

Associated Oil Company Associated Oil Company was an American oil and gas company once headquartered in San Francisco, California and served much of the Pacific West Coast, including Hawaii, as well as the Orient and merged with the Tidewater Oil Company in 1938. Hi ...

. Soon thereafter,

Standard Oil Company of New Jersey ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its roo ...

took control of the company. ''Flying A'' became the primary brand name for the company, though the Tydol and Associated names were also retained in their respective marketing areas. Tidewater Oil Company operated a fleet of oil

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanke ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it chartered ships to the

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

and

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Co ...

and operated

T2 tanker The T2 tanker, or T2, was a class of oil tanker constructed and produced in large quantities in the United States during World War II. Only the T3 tankers were larger "navy oilers" of the period. Some 533 T2s were built between 1940 and the end of ...

s to support the war effort. Ships included: USS Guyandot (AOG-16), SS Byron D. Benson, SS Samuel Q. Brown, Falls of Clyde, and others. During the 1950s, the Associated and Tydol brands gradually fell into disuse, and were dropped entirely in 1956. In 1966,

Phillips Petroleum Company Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...

(now

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...

) purchased Tidewater's western refining, distribution and retailing network. Phillips immediately rebranded all Flying A stations in the region to

Phillips 66 The Phillips 66 Company is an American Multinational corporation, multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Westchase, Houston, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Compan ...

. On the East Coast that year, American-born British petrol-industrialist

J. Paul Getty Jean Paul Getty Sr. (; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American-born British petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, he was the son of pi ...

merged his numerous oil interests into

Getty Oil Company Getty Oil was an American oil marketing company with its origins as part of the large integrated oil company founded by J. Paul Getty. History J. Paul Getty incorporated Getty Oil in 1942. He had previously worked in the oil fields of Oklaho ...

, and Tidewater Oil was dropped as a corporate brand. In 2000, BP acquired the Veedol brand when it bought

Burmah-Castrol The Burmah Oil Company was a leading British oil company which was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 1966, Castrol was acquired by Burmah, which was renamed "Burmah-Castrol". BP Amoco (now BP) purchased the company in 2000. History ...

. In February 2011, BP offered to sell the Veedol brand, which was purchased that October by Tide Water India, part of the

group Indian company.Tide Water buys rights to Veedol trademark
on Live Mint, 2011

References

External links

Tide Water Oil Co. of India
{{Phillips 66 Defunct oil companies of the United States Texaco Articles containing video clips

History

See also

References

External links