Cities Service “For People Going Places!”

Cities Service Company was started by an oilman, Henry Latham Dougherty, in 1910 to supply gas and electricity to small public utilities. The next three years saw enormous growth, including the purchasing of the Quapaw Gas Company, much of the Barnsdall Properties, and in addition, the Empire Gas Company. In 1914 the Empire subsidiary discovered oil in Kansas. By 1915 Cities Service Company possessed 98 subsidiaries and had its headquarters on Wall Street.

In 1916 Cities Service bought their first oil refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. By 1918, or the final year of the First World War, Cities Service was the supplier for half of the oil used by the US and its Allies. In 1928 a Cities Service subsidiary discovered oil in the Oklahoma City field which, at the time, was one of the largest oil fields in the world.

In the 1960’s, the Cities Service Company realized the need to modernize its corporate identity. The name CITGO was introduced in 1965, using the word “GO” to promote the company as one with “power, energy and progressiveness.” With the name change came the introduction of the famous red triangle, known as the “trimark” logo. In 1982, Cities Service was sold to Occidental Petroleum. The following spring, CITGO was incorporated, and in August of the same year, was sold to Southland’s 7-Eleven. In 1986, Petróleos de Venezuela bought 50% interest in CITGO, and in 1990, Venezuela’s national oil company bought the remaining half, for total ownership of the CITGO name.

CITGO Petroleum Corporation

1293 Eldridge Parkway
Houston, Texas

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