Former type Subsidiary Successor BP Australia Limited Profit £93,429 (1940) Defunct 1957 | Industry Petroleum Area served Australia Founded 1920 Parent organization BP | |
 | ||
Products Refined petroleum fuels and related products | ||
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.
Contents
Early history
The partnership was established in 1920 on the initiative of prime minister Billy Hughes.
In 1924 it opened Australia's first oil refinery 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 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.