Tosco Corporation

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Tosco (The Oil Shale COrporation) was an independent U.S. based petroleum refining and marketing corporation. It was founded in 1955 in Santa Monica, California, and originally focused on efforts to extract oil products from oil shale and developing alternative energy sources. In 1965, Tosco entered into a joint venture with Atlantic Richfield to develop the Colony Shale Oil Project in Colorado.

In 1976 the company name was officially shortened to just Tosco after the company acquired the Avon Refinery in Concord, California and other west coast facilities from Phillips Petroleum, making it a major player in the petroleum refining sector. The company continued its efforts in oil shale extraction until 1982 when Exxon (which had bought Atlantic Richfield's 60% share in the project in 1980) pulled out of the Colony Project joint venture, leaving Tosco unable to keep the venture afloat. A major company reorganization followed in 1983. Several takeover bids during the 1980s failed to materialize, and another major reorganization took place in 1991 with the company moving its headquarters to Stamford, Connecticut. ^[1]

In 1996, Tosco acquired the Circle K chain of convenience stores. In 1997, Tosco bought the rights to the Union 76 brand and the western United States refining and marketing operations from Unocal. Tosco in turn was acquired by Phillips Petroleum in 2001 and ceased to exist as an independent company. ^[2] Phillips merged with Conoco in 2002 to become ConocoPhillips, who spun off the Circle K stores to Canadian-based Alimentation Couche-Tard.