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ESSO
(ESS-oh)
An
international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies
Common
clues: Exxon,
once; Sinclair rival; Acronym formed from “Standard Oil”;
Canadian gas brand; Old gas brand; Petrol brand; “Happy
motoring” company; Past gas; Tiger-in-your-tank brand
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
once a month
Frequency
in English language:
24562 / 86800
Video:
Old
Esso Gas Station Commercials
Esso
is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related
companies. Pronounced ("S-O"), it is derived from the
initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the
focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United
States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by the Exxon
brand after it bought Humble Oil, while Esso remained widely used
elsewhere. In most of the world, the Esso brand and the Mobil
brand are the primary brand names of ExxonMobil, with the Exxon
brand name still in use only in the United States alongside
Mobil.
An
Esso station in Stabekk, Norway
In
1911, Standard Oil was broken up into seven regional companies,
each with the rights to the brand "Standard" in certain
states (plus a number of other companies that had no territorial
rights). Standard Oil of New Jersey ("Jersey Standard")
had the rights in that state, plus in Maryland, West Virginia,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the District of
Columbia. By 1941, it had also acquired the rights in
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. In
those states, it marketed its products under the brand "Esso",
the phonetic pronunciation of the letters "S" and "O".
It also used the Esso brand in New York and the six New England
states, where the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony -
Vacuum, later Socony - Mobil) had the rights, but did not object
to the New Jersey company's use of the trademark (the two
companies did not merge until 1998). However, in the other
states, the other Standard Oil companies objected and forced
Jersey Standard to use other brand names. In most states the
company used the trademark "Enco", and in a few
"Humble". The other Standard companies likewise were
"Standard" or some variant on that in their home
states, and another brand name in other states.
During
the years of racial segregation in the United States and the
Seven Sisters oil companies, Esso was unusual in its willingness
to offer gas station franchises to African Americans.[1]
In
1973, Standard Oil of New Jersey renamed itself as the Exxon
Corporation, and adopted that trademark throughout the country.
It however maintained the rights to "Standard" and
"Esso" in the states where it held those rights, by a
token effort, by selling "Esso Diesel" in those states
at stations that sell diesel fuel, thus preventing the trademark
from being declared abandoned. It retained the "Esso"
brand in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands until
2008, when it sold its stations there to Total S.A. The ENCO
brand name was still used on locations in the Midwest, which were
scheduled for abandonment.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Esso".
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