Lion Oil Company is a private corporation engaged in refining and production of oil, gasoline, and oil-based products. It also manufactures asphalt, industrial solvents and roofing materials.[1] It also operates a gathering and transportation system that moves oil products in interstate commerce.[2] The company is based in Arkansas.
History
Lion Oil Company was established in 1922. Thomas Harry (Colonel) Barton was instrumental in the development of the company.[3] He joined the organization as a major stockholder in 1928 and was elected president and director. His tenure saw the expansion of Lion Oil with the addition of holdings in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.[4] In Arkansas, it owned three large petroleum companies, including 400 hundred service stations.[4]
In 1955, Lion Oil was sold to the Monsanto Company along with what is now El Dorado Chemical Company. Lion Oil is the only oil refinery Monsanto has owned.[citation needed] This purchase was part of Monsanto's move to enter the petroleum industry after major oil companies, which supplied it with feedstocks, began their own commodity chemical divisions.[5] Lion Oil was later sold by Monsanto to Tosco.[citation needed]
In 1985, Lion was struggling and on the verge of shutting down and was sold by Tosco to a partnership of Ergon Refining of Jackson, Mississippi, and a group of local investors. This is how it acquired the oil refinery in El Dorado, Arkansas.[6]
^ abWilliams, Nancy A.; Whayne, Jeannie M. (2000). Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. p. 20. ISBN1-55728-588-8.
^Elmore, Bartow J. (2021). Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN978-1-324-00205-5.
^About Lion Oil undated, Quote "El Dorado Refinery (acquired in 1985)"