The Phillips 66 Company is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Company, helped ground the newly reconfigured Phillips 66. The company today was formed ten years after Phillips merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips. The merged company spun off its refining, chemical, and retail assets (known as downstream operations in the oil industry) into a new company bearing the Phillips name. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012, under the ticker PSX.
The company is engaged in refining, transporting, and marketing natural gas liquids (NGL) petrochemicals. They are also active in the research and development of emerging energy sources and partners with Chevron on chemicals through a joint venture known as Chevron Phillips Chemical.
Phillips 66 is ranked No. 29 on the Fortune 500 list and No. 74 on the Fortune Global 500 list as of 2022, with revenues of over $115 billion USD. Phillips 66 has approximately 14,000 employees worldwide and is active in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and currently owns and licenses out various service station brands across the country, such as 76 and Conoco within the United States, and JET in Europe.
History
Beginning
The Phillips Petroleum Company was founded by Lee Eldas "L.E." Phillips and Frank Phillips of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and incorporated on June 13, 1917. The new company had assets of $3 million, 27 employees and land throughout Oklahoma and Kansas. After discovery of Texas's huge Panhandle gas field in 1918 and the Hugoton Field to its north in Kansas, Phillips became increasingly involved in the rapidly developing natural gas industry. In particular, the company specialized in extracting liquids from natural gas and, by 1925, was the nation's largest producer of natural gas liquids. According to the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum in Bartlesville, the “Phillips 66” name for the gasoline came about by a combination of events. The specific gravity of the gasoline was close to 66; the car testing the fuel did 66 miles per hour; and, the test took place on US Route 66. So, the naming committee unanimously voted for “Phillips 66.”
The first Phillips 66 service station opened on November 19, 1927, at 805 E. Central Avenue in Wichita, Kansas. This station still stands, preserved by the local historical society. The first Phillips 66 service station built in Texas opened on July 27, 1928, on the corner of 5th and Main streets in Turkey, Texas.
Logo
The Phillips 66 shield logo, linking it to U.S. Route 66, was introduced in 1930 in a black and orange color scheme that would last nearly thirty years. In 1959, Phillips replaced these colors with red, white and black, the one still deployed. The first design had the second 6 lower than the first; the current design does not.
From the late 1930s until the 1960s, Phillips employed registered nurses as "highway hostesses" that made random visits to Phillips 66 stations within their districts. The nurses inspected station restroom facilities to ensure they were clean and stocked with supplies. They also served as concierges, spreading goodwill for the company by helping motorists identify suitable dining and lodging facilities. (Union 76 employed similar hostesses, called the "Sparkle Corps".)
Motor oil
Phillips was among the first oil companies to introduce a multi-grade motor oil, "TropArtic," in 1954. Such motor oils were designed to be used year-round in automobile engines, as opposed to single grades for which different grades of motor oils were recommended to meet weather variances. Phillips 66 sells motor oil under the Kendall brand.
Gas stations
Phillips also had gasoline stations in Canada's western provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan under the name Pacific 66 until the late 1970s. In 1932, the 76 brand, long familiar in the western U.S., was created by Union Oil Company of California (later Unocal). In 1946, Phillips purchased the Utah-based Wasatch Oil Co., bringing the Phillips 66 brand to the northern Rocky Mountain states and the far eastern portions of Oregon and Washington.
In 1966, Phillips entered the West Coast market by purchasing Tidewater Oil Co.'s refining and marketing properties in that region and rebranding all Flying A distributorships and service stations to Phillips 66.