| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Petroleum |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Defunct | 1957 |
| Successor | BP Australia |
Area served | Australia |
| Products | Refined petroleum fuels and related products |
| £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 ajoint venture between theGovernment of Australia andAnglo-Persian Oil Company.
The partnership was established in 1920 on the initiative ofAustralian prime ministerBilly Hughes.[1][2]
The board was to consist of seven members, three representing theGovernment of Australia and four representing theAnglo-Persian Oil Company. The provisional board consisted of: SirRobert Garran, M. C. Lockyer, andRobert Gibson for the Commonwealth, and F. H. Bathurst, Professor Payne,Thomas John Greenway, and W. J. Windeyer for the oil company.[3] Greenway served as chairman for the first year.
In 1922, COR purchased the disusedshale oil refinery atHamilton, New South Wales, that had been operated byBritish Australian Oil Company, and relocated equipment from there for use in its new refinery inVictoria.[4][5]
In 1924, the company opened Australia's first refinery to process imported crude oil, nearLaverton, Victoria, north of theMelbourne - Geelong railway line, adjacent to Kororoit Creek Road.[6][7] The refinery received its first shipment of crude oil on 12 March 1924, with product coming "on-stream" on 17 May 1924.[citation needed] 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.[8]
In 1952, theMenzies government sold the Australian government interest in COR to theAnglo-Iranian Oil Company, which became theBP 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 toHerbert 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".[9]
In 1955, BP developed theKwinana Oil Refinery inWestern Australia[10]
Between 1952 and 1959, BP Australia branded its standard-grade petrol as COR, but then dropped the name.[11][12]
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