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A little bit of ASSOCIATED OIL history:

"In 1901 on the West Coast, an enterprising pipe salesman by the name of W.S. Porter persuaded a group of San Joaquin Valley independent oil producers to form an operating group in hopes of selling them pipe for a line that would carry their crude oil from the Kern River fields of Bakersfield north to the San Francisco Bay. In October of that same year, the group incorporated as the Associated Oil Company with Porter as General Manager." (from Royal Petroleum Company of CA website)

In 1905 Standard Oil and Southern Pacific Railroad bought interests in Associated Oil Company of California... By 1909 Southern Pacific owned 51% of the shares and Associated Oil was on it's way to supplying oil not only to the West Coast but to China, Japan and the Western Pacific...

By 1912 Gasoline and Kerosene were in high demand on the West Coast and Associated built their first refining plant. In Jan of 1913, Associated Oil built their first refinery... The plant was called the Avon Refinery because it was located within the Avon section of Southern Pacific Railroad's track system. The site for the refinery was chosen for its proximity to the Southern Pacific Railroad Lines and the dependable deep-water port reached by the Southern Pacific Pipe Line.

Demand for gasoline "exploded" on the West Coast and Associated Oil decided to not only refine gasoline but to sell it in their own stations.... In approx 1918 Associated Oil opened their first gas station in the "Bay area"... By the early 1920s the Company had stations in California, Oregon, Northern Nevada and Washington State...