Pennzoil

Pennzoil is an American oil company founded in Los Angeles, California in 1913. In 1955, it was acquired by Oil City, Pennsylvania company South Penn Oil, a former branch of Standard Oil. In 1963, South Penn Oil merged with Zapata Petroleum; the merged company took the Pennzoil name. In 1968 United Gas Corporation became part of Pennzoil. (Although United Gas was a larger company, pre-merger, Pennzoil had successfully used a "leveraged buyout" strategy.) During the 1970s, the company moved its offices to Houston, Texas. In 1977 a spin-off company was formed called Pogo, which stood for Pennzoil Offshore Gas Operators.