Commonwealth Oil Refineries
{{Short description|Former oil company of Australia}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}}
{{Infobox company
|name = Commonwealth Oil Refineries
|logo =
|type = Subsidiary
|successor = BP Australia
|founded = 1920
|founder =
|defunct = 1957
|location =
|locations =
|area_served = Australia
|key_people =
|industry = Petroleum
|products = Refined petroleum fuels and related products
|services =
|revenue =
|operating_income =
|net_income = £93,429
|net_income_year = 1940
|assets = £2,195,227
|assets_year = 1940
|equity =
|owner =
|num_employees =
|parent = BP
|divisions =
|subsid =
|homepage =
|footnotes =
}}
{{for multi|the Australian shale oil producer|Commonwealth Oil Corporation|the Puerto Rican oil refining company|Commonwealth Oil Refining Company}}
Commonwealth Oil Refineries (COR) was an Australian oil company that operated between 1920 and 1952 as a joint venture between the Government of Australia and Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
Early history
The partnership was established in 1920 on the initiative of Australian prime minister Billy Hughes.{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Fitzhardinge |first=L. F. |authorlink = Laurie Fitzhardinge |year=1983 |id=A090395b |title= Hughes, William Morris (Billy) (1862 - 1952) |accessdate=14 November 2008}}{{Citation |title=Commonwealth Oil Refineries Ltd. (1920-1952) |publication-date=2008 |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-559974 |access-date=15 July 2024 |via=Trove}}
The board was to consist of seven members, three representing the Government of Australia and four representing the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The provisional board consisted of: Sir Robert Garran, M. C. Lockyer, and Robert Gibson for the Commonwealth, and F. H. Bathurst, Professor Payne, Thomas John Greenway, and W. J. Windeyer for the oil company.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article34199370 |title=Anglo-Persian Oil Co. |newspaper=Western Argus |volume=25 |issue=5052 |location=Western Australia |date=31 August 1920 |accessdate=25 January 2019 |page=12 |via=Trove}} Greenway served as chairman for the first year.
In 1922, COR purchased the disused shale oil refinery at Hamilton, New South Wales, that had been operated by British Australian Oil Company, and relocated equipment from there for use in its new refinery in Victoria.{{Cite news |date=1923-08-16 |title=Hamilton Oil Works |pages=6 |work=Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139940653 |access-date=2022-06-13 |via=Trove}}{{Cite news |date=1922-08-24 |title=Why to Victoria? |pages=4 |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245740086 |access-date=2022-06-13 |via=Trove}}
In 1924, the company opened Australia's first refinery to process imported crude oil, near Laverton, Victoria, north of the Melbourne - Geelong railway line, adjacent to Kororoit Creek Road.{{cite web |title=A History of Altona and Laverton: Industrial Development |url=http://www.alhs.com.au/altona-laverton-history/a-history-of-altona/industrial-development.html|publisher=Altona and Laverton Historical Society |accessdate=2013-06-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409181403/http://alhs.com.au/altona-laverton-history/a-history-of-altona/industrial-development.html |archive-date=9 April 2013 |url-status=dead}}{{Citation | title=The romance of the C.O.R.: a great national institution |date=1938 |publisher=Commonwealth Oil Refineries (Australia) |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18541936 |accessdate=20 June 2015 |via=Trove}} The refinery received its first shipment of crude oil on 12 March 1924, with product coming "on-stream" on 17 May 1924.{{cn|date=February 2024}} The refinery had an annual processing capacity of 100,000 tons of crude oil. The refinery was shut down on 6 August 1955, having been eclipsed by much larger refineries built around the country.
In the 1930s, the company was involved in oil search ventures.{{Citation |last1=Amos |first1=D. J. (Douglas James) |title=The story of the Commonwealth Oil Refineries and the search for oil |date=1935 | publisher=E.J. McAlister & Co |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/16622398 |accessdate=20 June 2015 |via=Trove}}
BP
In 1952, the Menzies government sold the Australian government interest in COR to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which became the BP in 1954. The last speech in parliament by former prime minister, Billy Hughes, was an attack on the Menzies government's decision to sell its share in COR, the state-owned enterprise Hughes' government had established over 30 years earlier. According to Herbert Evatt, his speech "seemed at once to grip the attention of all honourable members present ... nobody left the House, and nobody seemed to dare to move".{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1979|p=670}}
In 1955, BP developed the Kwinana Oil Refinery in Western Australia{{Citation |title=And now Kwinana |date=1955 |publisher=Australasian Petroleum Refinery in conjunction with C.O.R |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/19772544 |accessdate=20 June 2015 |via=Trove}}
BP/COR
Between 1952 and 1959, BP Australia branded its standard-grade petrol as COR, but then dropped the name.{{cite web
|title=Commonwealth Oil Refineries Ltd (1920 - c. 1952)
|publisher=Australian Science at Work
|url=http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/asaw/biogs/A000957b.htm
|accessdate=14 November 2008}}{{Citation |title=BP C.O.R. road map Western Australia |date=1957 |publisher=BP Australia |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8610545 |accessdate=20 June 2015 |via=Trove}}
References
{{Reflist}}
=Works cited=
- {{cite book |first=L. F. |last=Fitzhardinge |title=William Morris Hughes: A Political Biography |year=1979 |volume=2: The Little Digger, 1914–1952 |publisher=Angus & Robertson|isbn=0207132453}}
{{Automotive industry in Australia}}
{{BP}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Anglo-Persian Oil Company
Category:Defunct oil and gas companies of Australia
Category:Energy companies established in 1920
Category:Energy companies disestablished in 1957
Category:Former Commonwealth Government-owned companies of Australia
Category:Former joint ventures