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ARCO (an acronym for Atlantic Richfield Company) is an oil company which is, since 2000, a subsidiary of UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
-based BP
BP

BP plc , is the third largest global energy corporation, a multinational corporation oil company with headquarters in London. The company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six "supermajors" ....
 and is officially known as BP West Coast Products LLC. ARCO that was formed by the merger of East Coast
East Coast of the United States

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the "Eastern Seaboard" or "Atlantic Seaboard", refers to the easternmost coastal states in the central and northern United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada....
-based Atlantic Refining
Atlantic Petroleum

Atlantic Petroleum was an oil company in the Eastern United States headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a direct descendant of the Standard Oil Trust....
 and California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
-based Richfield Petroleum in 1966.






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Arcostation
ARCO (an acronym for Atlantic Richfield Company) is an oil company which is, since 2000, a subsidiary of UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
-based BP
BP

BP plc , is the third largest global energy corporation, a multinational corporation oil company with headquarters in London. The company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six "supermajors" ....
 and is officially known as BP West Coast Products LLC. ARCO that was formed by the merger of East Coast
East Coast of the United States

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the "Eastern Seaboard" or "Atlantic Seaboard", refers to the easternmost coastal states in the central and northern United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada....
-based Atlantic Refining
Atlantic Petroleum

Atlantic Petroleum was an oil company in the Eastern United States headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a direct descendant of the Standard Oil Trust....
 and California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
-based Richfield Petroleum in 1966. It is known for having low-priced gasoline compared with other national brands, mainly due to an early 1980s decision to emphasize cost cuts (cash only policy) and alternative sources of income (ampm
Ampm

ampm is a convenience store chain with branches located in several U.S. states including Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, recently in Illinois, Indiana, Georgia , Ohio, and Florida, and in several countries worldwide, including Japan....
). ARCO is headquartered
Headquarters

Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are concentrated. The corporate headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities....
 in La Palma, California
La Palma, California

La Palma is a city located in northern Orange County, California. The population was 15,408 at the 2000 census. It was originally incorporated as Dairyland, and was one of three dairy cities in the region but when the dairies moved east in the 1960s its name was changed to La Palma....
.

History

The Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company's heritage dates to 1866; it became part of the Standard Oil
Standard Oil

Standard Oil was a predominant United States integrated petroleum producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as an Ohio Corporation, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations until it was broken up...
 trust in 1874, but achieved independence again when Standard Oil was broken up in 1911. ARCO was a principal in the discovery of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
Prudhoe Bay oil field

Prudhoe Bay oil field is a large oil field on Alaska's Alaska North Slope. It is the largest oil field in both the United States and in North America, covering and originally containing approximately of oil.....
, North America's largest oil field, in 1968. Led by founder Robert Orville Anderson, ARCO acquired Sinclair Oil
Sinclair Oil

Sinclair Oil Corporation is an American petroleum corporation, founded by Harry F. Sinclair on May 1, 1916, as Sinclair Oil & Refining Corporation, by combining the assets of eleven small petroleum companies....
 in 1969, but later divested certain Sinclair assets during the mid 1970s, resulting in Sinclair
Sinclair Oil

Sinclair Oil Corporation is an American petroleum corporation, founded by Harry F. Sinclair on May 1, 1916, as Sinclair Oil & Refining Corporation, by combining the assets of eleven small petroleum companies....
 returning as a private company.

ARCO once had a presence in the southwestern U.S. - a stretch of Texas State Highway 225 east of Loop 610 in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States of America and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2007 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles ....
, had an oil tank farm once painted with the ARCO logo. Lyondell-Citgo would rebrand the oil tanks in the 1980s. ARCO's Corporate Headquarters were in the ARCO Center
ARCO Center

Bank of America Plaza is a 55 story high-rise located in Los Angeles, California in the United States. It was completed in 1974 with the headquarters of Security Pacific Bank, ARCO and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton as its main tenants....
 in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
 at the corner of 5th and Flower Streets before they were acquired by BP. ARCO's Oil & Gas division headquarters were in downtown Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third largest city in the state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population in the United States.The city, with a population of over 1.3 million, is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex which contains 6.1 million people, and is the fourth-largest United States metropolitan area...
. The headquarters building was a 46-story office building designed by architect I.M. Pei, the ARCO Tower. ARCO closed the Dallas office and sold the building in the mid 1980s. Today, ARCO operates about 1100 stations in 5 US Western States: California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona.

ARCO merged with Anaconda Copper Mining Company
Anaconda Copper Mine

The Anaconda Copper Mine was a large copper mining in Butte, Montana. It was bought in 1881 by Marcus Daly from Michael Hickey. Hickey was a prospector and Union Civil War veteran, and named his claim the Anaconda Mine after reading Horace Greeley's Civil War account of how Ulysses S....
 (ACM) of Montana
Montana

Montana is a U.S. state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains....
 in 1977. ACM holdings including the Berkeley Pit
Berkeley Pit

The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper Mining located in Butte, Montana, United States. It is one mile long by half a mile wide with an approximate depth of ....
 and the Anaconda, Montana
Anaconda, Montana

Anaconda, county seat of Deer Lodge County, Montana, is located in mountainous southwestern Montana. The Continental Divide passes within 8 miles of the community with the local Pintler Mountain range reaching 10,379 feet ....
 Smelter. ARCO founder stated "he hoped Anaconda's resources and expertise would help him launch a major shale-oil venture
Oil shale extraction

Oil shale extraction is an industrial process for producing shale oil, a form of non-conventional oil. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into synthetic crude oil by pyrolysis, or destructive distillation....
, but that the world oil glut
1980s oil glut

The 1980s oil glut was a surplus of Petroleum caused by falling demand following the 1973 energy crisis and 1979 energy crisis. The world price of oil, which had peaked in 1980 at over United States dollar35 per barrel, fell in 1986 from $27 to below $10....
 and the declining price of petroleum
Price of petroleum

The price of petroleum as quoted in news generally refers to the spot price of either West Texas Intermediate/Light crude oil as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange for delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma, or of Brent Crude as traded on the Intercontinental Exchange for delivery at Sullom Voe....
 made shale oil
Shale oil

Shale oil or kerogen oil is a non-conventional oil produced by the destructive distillation of oil shale. This process, a controlled form of pyrolysis, converts the organic matter within the rock into Synthetic fuel....
 moot." The purchase turned out to be a regrettable decision for ARCO. Lack of experience with hard-rock mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
, and a sudden drop in the price of copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
 to below seventy cents a pound, the lowest in years, caused ARCO to suspend all operations in Butte, Montana
Butte, Montana

Butte is a city in and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of The City and County of Butte-Silver Bow....
. By 1983, only six years after acquiring rights to the "Richest Hill on Earth," the Berkeley Pit was completely idle. By 1986, some ARCO properties were sold to billionaire industrialist Dennis Washington
Dennis Washington

Dennis R. Washington is a Montana-based industrialist and philanthropist who owns, or owns controlling interest in, a large consortium of privately held companies collectively known as the Washington Companies....
, whose company Montana Resources operates a much smaller open-pit mine east of the defunct Berkeley Pit.

The Atlantic brand was spun off for ARCO's East Coast stations, and was acquired by Sunoco
Sunoco

Sunoco is an United States petroleum and petrochemical manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, United States, formerly known as Sun Company Inc. and Sun Oil Co. ....
. The ARCO brand is now used on the West Coast. ARCO specializes in discount gas by removing many frills, among them forcing prepayment for fuel, not accepting credit card
Credit card

A credit card is part of a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. It is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holders promise to pay for these goods and services....
s at most locations, and charging $0.45 for use of debit card
Debit card

A debit card is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. Functionally, it can be called an electronic check, as the funds are withdrawn directly from either the bank account , or from the remaining balance on the card....
s. In most locations, it is co-branded with ampm
Ampm

ampm is a convenience store chain with branches located in several U.S. states including Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, recently in Illinois, Indiana, Georgia , Ohio, and Florida, and in several countries worldwide, including Japan....
 convenience stores, also a division of BP West Coast (ARCO introduced the ampm concept in 1979).

Over the course of 2004 and 2005, ARCO signs have been replaced. New signs still have the Arco spark, but BP's Helios
Helios

Helios is the god of sun.In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios . Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn....
 (BP's new white, yellow, and green mark named after the Greek sun god which replaced the old British Petroleum shield mark) is also located on the sign. A new tagline "ARCO - part of BP" has also appeared on some signs and advertisements. ARCO is known for sponsoring the ARCO Arena
ARCO Arena

ARCO Arena is an list of indoor arenas located in Sacramento, California, United States. After playing in the make-shift facility called the ARCO Arena I, this version was completed in 1988, at a cost of $40 million?entirely privately financed....
 in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the Capital of the United States U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County, California. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive California Central Valley, it is the seventh-largest city in California.....
, with a license fee was $750,000/year through 2007.

In March, 1997, ARCO also leased almost all the gas stations of the (now) Santa Fe Springs, CA based independent Thrifty Oil group of 250 stations found throughout California after a damaging price war which the independent Thrifty was unable to win.

Superfund site

ARCO is the responsible party for America's largest Superfund
Superfund

Superfund is the common name for the Environmental policy of the United States officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act , enacted by the United States Congress on December 11, 1980 in response to the Love Canal disaster and the environmental contamination at the Valley of the Drums....
 site- a site that takes in the towns of Butte and Anaconda, and of the Clark Fork River including Milltown Dam
Milltown Dam

Milltown Dam is an earth-fill gravity-type Hydroelectricity dam on the Clark Fork river, in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Montana.The dam is located in the far northwest of Montana near the Idaho border....
. The region's water and soils were polluted by a century of mining and smelting. Chemicals of concern include many heavy metals and arsenic. On 7 February 2008, the United States Environmental Protection Agency? announced that prolonged litigation with ARCO ended when ARCO agreed to pay $187 million to finance natural resource restoration activities.

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