The Phillips 66 Company is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Company, helped ground the newly reconfigured Phillips 66. The company today was formed ten years after Phillips merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips, the merged company spun off its refining, chemical, and retail assets (known as downstream operations in the oil industry) into a new company bearing the Phillips name. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012, under the ticker PSX.
The company is engaged in refining, transporting, and marketing natural gas liquids (NGL) petrochemicals. They are also active in research and development of emerging energy sources and partners with Chevron on chemicals through a joint venture known as Chevron Phillips Chemical.[6]
Phillips 66 is ranked No. 29 on the Fortune 500 list and No. 74 on the Fortune Global 500 list as of 2022 with revenues of over $115 billion USD. Phillips 66 has approximately 14,000 employees worldwide and is active in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and currently owns and licenses out various service station brands across the country, such as 76 and Conoco within the United States, and JET in Europe.[7][8]
Beginning
The Phillips Petroleum Company was founded by Lee Eldas “L.E.” Phillips and Frank Phillips of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and incorporated on June 13, 1917. The new company had assets of $3 million, 27 employees and land throughout Oklahoma and Kansas. After discovery of Texas’s huge Panhandle gas field in 1918 and the Hugoton Field to its north in Kansas, Phillips became increasingly involved in the rapidly developing natural gas industry. In particular, the company specialized in extracting liquids from natural gas and by 1925 was the nation’s largest producer of natural gas liquids. According to the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum in Bartlesville, the “Phillips 66” name for the gasoline came about by a combination of events.[9] The specific gravity of the gasoline was close to 66; the car testing the fuel did 66 miles per hour; and, the test took place on US Route 66.[9] So, the naming committee unanimously voted for “Phillips 66.”[9]
The first Phillips 66 service station opened November 19, 1927, at 805 E. Central Street in Wichita, Kansas.[10] This station still stands, preserved by the local historical society. The first Phillips 66 service station built in Texas opened on July 27, 1928, on the corner of 5th and Main streets in Turkey, Texas.[11]