South Penn was one of the original companies of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil; it was forced into independence when the Standard trust was broken up in 1911. Under first president Noah Clark, South Penn made rapid progress with its initial wells and was soon pushing across the border into the rich West Virginia fields.
South Penn Oil Company became an independent company in 1911 when the Standard Oil Trust was dissolved. In 1925 South Penn purchased 51 percent of Pennzoil Co.; it bought the rest of the company in 1955. Pennzoil originally sold its lubricants under the brand name "Pennsoil," which was an abbreviation for William Penn's Oil. It was discovered, however, that customers pronounced the brand "Penn-soil," so the name was changed to Pennzoil.
In 1963, South Penn Oil merged with Zapata Petroleum and Stetco Petroleum to form a new "Pennzoil Company", headquartered in Houston and appointing Hugh Liedtke as president. Zapata Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1953 by future U.S. President George H. W. Bush, along with his business partners John Overbey, Hugh Liedtke, Bill Liedtke, and Thomas J. Devine.
In the 1960s Pennzoil aggressively marketed its trademark yellow can of motor oil, using golfer Arnold Palmer as the center of an advertising campaign, and used the profits from its products to further expand its oil supplies and operations.
In April 1998, Pennzoil and Quaker State Corporation announced a joint plan to restructure and combine their operations. Under the plan, Pennzoil would spin off its motor oil business, Jiffy Lube chain, and related operations into a new company. That company would then merge with Quaker State to form the Pennzoil–Quaker State Company.
This company in turn was purchased in 2002 by the Shell Oil Company, the American subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group.
History of Pennzoil Company
