Commonwealth Oil Refineries (COR) was an Australian oil company that operated between 1920 and 1952 as a joint venture of the Australian government and the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
Early history
The partnership was established in 1920 on the initiative of
prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Billy Hughes.
The board was to consist of seven members, three representing the Commonwealth and four representing the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The provisional board consisted of: Sir
Robert Garran
Sir Robert Randolph Garran (10 February 1867 – 11 January 1957) was an Australian lawyer who became "Australia's first public servant" – the first federal government employee after the federation of the Australian colonies. He served as th ...
, M. C. Lockyer, and
Robert Gibson for the Commonwealth, and F. H. Bathurst, Professor Payne,
T. J. Greenway, and W. J. Windeyer for the oil company. Greenway served as chairman for the first year.
In 1922, the company purchased the disused
shale oil
Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...
refinery at
Hamilton, that had been operated by
British Australian Oil Company, and relocated equipment from there for use in its new refinery in Victoria.
In 1924 it opened Australia's first oil refinery that processed imported crude oil, near
Laverton, Victoria, north of the
Melbourne - Geelong railway, adjacent to Kororoit Creek Road. The refinery received its first shipment of crude oil on 12 March 1924, with product coming "on-stream" on 17 May 1924. The refinery had an annual processing capacity of 100,000 tons of crude oil. The refinery was shut down on 6 August 1955, eclipsed by much larger refineries being built around the country.
In the 1930s the company was involved in oil search ventures.
BP
In 1952, the
Menzies
Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges.
Derivation and history
The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...
Coalition government sold the Australian government's interest in COR to the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which became the
British Petroleum Company (BP) in 1954.
In 1955 it developed a refinery at
Kwinana, Western Australia
BP/COR
Between 1952 and 1959, BP Australia branded its standard-grade petrol as COR, but then dropped the name.
See also
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Ampol
*
Golden Fleece Company
*
Neptune Oil Company
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Joint ventures
Anglo-Persian Oil Company
Defunct oil and gas companies of Australia