| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Petroleum |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Defunct | 1957 |
| Successor | BP Australia |
| Area served | Australia |
| Products | Refined petroleum fuels and related products |
| Net income | £93,429 (1940) |
| Total assets | £2,195,227 (1940) |
| Parent | BP |
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.
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. 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.
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. 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, having been eclipsed by much larger refineries built around the country.
In the 1930s, the company was involved in oil search ventures.
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".
In 1955, BP developed the Kwinana Oil Refinery in Western Australia
BP/COR
Between 1952 and 1959, BP Australia branded its standard-grade petrol as COR, but then dropped the name.
References
- Fitzhardinge, L. F. (1983). "Hughes, William Morris (Billy) (1862 - 1952)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
- Commonwealth Oil Refineries Ltd. (1920-1952), 2008, retrieved 15 July 2024 – via Trove
- "Anglo-Persian Oil Co". Western Argus. Vol. 25, no. 5052. Western Australia. 31 August 1920. p. 12. Retrieved 25 January 2019 – via Trove.
- "Hamilton Oil Works". Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate. 16 August 1923. p. 6. Retrieved 13 June 2022 – via Trove.
- "Why to Victoria?". The Daily Telegraph. 24 August 1922. p. 4. Retrieved 13 June 2022 – via Trove.
- "A History of Altona and Laverton: Industrial Development". Altona and Laverton Historical Society. Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
- The romance of the C.O.R.: a great national institution, Commonwealth Oil Refineries (Australia), 1938, retrieved 20 June 2015 – via Trove
- Amos, D. J. (Douglas James) (1935), The story of the Commonwealth Oil Refineries and the search for oil, E.J. McAlister & Co, retrieved 20 June 2015 – via Trove
- Fitzhardinge 1979, p. 670.
- And now Kwinana, Australasian Petroleum Refinery in conjunction with C.O.R, 1955, retrieved 20 June 2015 – via Trove
- "Commonwealth Oil Refineries Ltd (1920 - c. 1952)". Australian Science at Work. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
- BP C.O.R. road map Western Australia, BP Australia, 1957, retrieved 20 June 2015 – via Trove
Works cited
- Fitzhardinge, L. F. (1979). William Morris Hughes: A Political Biography. Vol. 2: The Little Digger, 1914–1952. Angus & Robertson. ISBN 0207132453.
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