ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) is an American oil company that was formed by the merger of East Coast-based Atlantic Refining and California-based Richfield Petroleum in 1966. The Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company's heritage dates to 1866; it became part of the Standard Oil 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, North America's largest oil field, in 1968. The company acquired Sinclair Oil in 1969.

ARCO once had a presence in the southeastern U.S. - a stretch of State Highway 225 east of Loop 610 in Houston, TX had an oil tank farm once painted with the ARCO logo. Lyondell-Citgo would rebrand the oil tanks in the 1980s.

ARCO bought Anaconda Copper Mining Company's Montana holdings in 1977, including the Berkeley Pit and the Anaconda, Montana Smelter. However, the purchase turned out to be a regrettable decision for ARCO. Lack of experience with hard-rock mining, and a sudden drop in the price of copper to below seventy cents a pound, the lowest in years, caused ARCO to suspend all operations in Butte. By 1983, only six years after acquiring rights to the "Richest Hill on Earth," the Berkeley Pit was completely idle.

ARCO, officially BP West Coast Products LLC, is now a subsidiary of BP.

The Atlantic brand was spun off for ARCO's East Coast stations, and was acquired by Sunoco. 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 (except in Oregon, where customers are prohibited by state law from pumping their own gas), not accepting credit cards, and charging for use of debit cards. In most locations, it is co-branded with ampm convenience stores, also a division of BP West Coast.

Over the course of 2004 and 2005, ARCO signs have been replaced. New signs still have the Arco spark, but BP's Helios is also located on the sign. A new tagline "Arco - part of BP" has also appeared on some signs and advertisements. Some groups have speculated that this is the first step in a process that will see BP slowly rebrand the familiar ARCO logo with the BP Helios. ARCO is known for sponsoring the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. ARCO also manages the Thrifty Oil group of stations found throughout California. ARCO's patented gasoline additive is CleanTech.

ARCO is a successor to Standard Oil through Atlantic.

ARCO's pre-paid gift card, ARCO PayPass, is being phased out. Its replacement will be the BP Cash! Card used at BP and Amoco stations.

There have been discussions about the use of the BP Credit Card and the BP Visa card at ARCO stations. It has been rumored that BP is working on this, and that it will occur by June of 2006.

External links

• ARCO Official Website
• BP Official Website

Oil companies of the United States | Energy companies of the United States