Gull Petroleum is a

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 ...

distributor in Australia. Founded in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Western Australia in 1976, it was later owned by

Puma Energy Puma Energy is a Swiss multinational mid- and downstream oil company, majority-owned by Singapore-based Swiss company Trafigura. Its operations span around 40 countries across five continents and encompass the supply, storage, refining, di ...

and now owned by Chevron Corporation ( Caltex).

History

Gull Petroleum was founded by Keith Mitchell, Mark Quackenbush and Terry Lockwood in 1976. Mitchell and Lockwood first met each other while working at

Golden Fleece In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece ( el, Χρυσόμαλλον δέρας, ''Chrysómallon déras'') is the fleece of the golden-woolled,, ''Khrusómallos''. winged ram, Chrysomallos, that rescued Phrixus and brought him to Colchis, where ...

. While at Golden Fleece Mitchell made a big impression in the

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

n oil and gas industry rapidly climbing the Golden Fleece corporate ladder. This led to Mitchell being headhunted by Quackenbush's father, the owner of Western Oil. When Mitchell joined Western Oil, Lockwood followed across with him. It was at this time the three men came together and founded Gull Petroleum. Keith Mitchell came up with the idea to name the company Gull, due to the familiar sounding name of

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger ...

. The strategic naming of Gull helped to bring familiarity and trust in the Western Australian oil and gas market place. It was during the early expansion of Gull when the team were looking to take over Gingers Roadhouse that they met the real estate agent Fred Rae. Rae was so impressed with Gull Petroleum's expansion and its future plans that he asked to buy into the company in 1978. Soon after Rae joined Gull, due to the death of his father Quackenbush left to take over his father's company Western Oil. In 1984 Mitchell sold his shareholding to Rae. In December 1995 Gull Petroleum expanded into the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...

. In 1998 Gull New Zealand was established. In December 2010, Rae sold the 98 Gull service station network in Western Australia to

Archer Capital Archer Capital is an Australian private equity investment firm based in Sydney. It was founded as GS Private Equity in 1996. Archer Capital hosts multiple investment funds which invest in businesses across a wide array of industries and sectors, ...

, which was then rolled into Archer's Ausfuel business, which also includes Choice Petroleum and Peak Petroleum. In March 2013, Ausfuel was acquired by

. The sale included 110 Gull, Choice and Peak service stations and 11 depots. Puma Energy in Australia was acquired by Chevron Corporation ( Caltex) in 2020.

References

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External links

Gull Petroleum website (February 2005)Gull Petroleum website (July 2012)
Australian companies established in 1976 Companies based in Perth, Western Australia Energy companies established in 1976 Oil companies of Australia Automotive fuel retailers in Australia

History

See also

References

External links