Our company's roots go back to 1900 as an oil importing
company, and the Caltex name has been in Australia for almost
seventy years.
The all-Australian oil importer Ampol was listed on the Australian
Securities Exchange (ASX) in the late 1940s. Both Caltex and Ampol
opened refineries in the 1950s and 1960s, Caltex in Sydney and
Ampol in Brisbane, and they competed fiercely in the service
station arena and oil product marketing generally. As the industry
started to rationalise, Ampol acquired Total and Caltex acquired
Golden Fleece.
Despite this, Caltex and Ampol were relatively small. Their 1995
merger propelled the company to be the largest refiner-marketer in
Australia, with debt at the time of the merger of approximately
$1.4 billion. Since then, the Caltex brand has mostly replaced the
Ampol brand.
Caltex is an Australian company - through its listing on the ASX;
through its Sydney-based head office and management team; through
its 4,000 employees working all around Australia and through its
many Australian shareholders. Caltex Australia operates
independently, with all decisions made by the management and the
Board in Australia. This is what sets Caltex apart from other
refiner-marketers in Australia.