Shell plc owns the Pennzoil motor oil brand in the United States. The former Pennzoil Company was founded in 1913 in Pennsylvania and operated as a separate company until it was acquired by Shell in 2002 and became a brand of the conglomerate.
The company’s roots may be traced back to the “South Penn Oil Company,” an oil company founded by Michael Late Benedum and Joe Trees in Oil City, Pennsylvania in May 1889 as a unit of Standard Oil.
When Standard Oil was split in 1911, it became the region’s largest oil production and became independent. By that time, two businesses, one on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast (both formed in 1908 and 1913), had begun marketing their motor oils under the Pennzoil brand. In 1925, their refineries and distributors were renamed “The Pennzoil Company.” South Penn Oil purchased the whole Pennzoil Company in 1955.
South Penn Oil joined with Zapata Petroleum and Stetco Petroleum in 1963 to form the “Pennzoil Corporation,” which was headquartered in Houston and led by Hugh Liedtke. Pennzoil’s petroleum products were sold all over the world by 1965.
Pennzoil purchased United Gas Corporation in a leveraged buyout in 1968, which was necessary since Pennzoil did not have enough assets to buy United outright.
The firm relocated its headquarters to the Pennzoil Place in Houston, Texas, in the 1970s.
POGO, an acronym for Pennzoil Offshore Gas Operators, was created in 1977 as a spin-off business.
Most Popular Pennzoil Products
Quaker State Full Synthetic
Quaker State Synthetic High Mileage Motor Oil
Quaker State Euro Synthetic Motor Oil