Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Phoenix Oil and Transport Company Limited was registered on 24 June 1920 to acquire various interests in Roumanian oil undertakings. In 1922 it acquired control of Roumanian Consolidated Oilfields Limited and in 1926 Phoenix Oil Products Ltd.
In 1926 Phoenix Oil and Transport also acquired Orion S.A.R. de Petrol, which owned oilfields in Roumania. Orion, although a Roumanian registered company, was a Dutch undertaking, formed in 1910. Unirea S.A.R. de Petrol, a wholly owned subsidiary of Phoenix Oil and Transport, was registered in Bucharest in 1920. Into it went the assets of several small English companies partially destroyed during the First World War.
Arbanash (Roumania) Oil Company Limited, incorporated in the United Kingdom in 1912, was the nominee through which Phoenix Oil and Transport held the whole of the issued capital of Unirea. In 1935 Unirea amalgamated with Orion and in 1938 with Roumanian Consolidated Oilfields Limited, so that by this date all of Phoenix Oil and Transport's Roumanian interests were consolidated in Unirea and its subsidiaries.
The company's assets were in enemy hands from 1941 until early in 1945, although the Roumanian subsidiaries continued operating, despite aerial bombardment which caused serious damage to refineries, tankage and loading stations. Production in Roumania declined sharply from about a million tons in 1936 to 396,000 tons in 1945. Unirea was taken into Roumanian state ownership in 1948.
Until 1946, a substantial interest in Phoenix Oil and Transport was held by General Mining and Finance Corporation Limited, which was represented on the board. Its interests were purchased in 1946 by Alpha Petrol Company of South Africa, and in 1948 the head office of Phoenix Oil and Transport moved to South Africa. On 27 February 1950 the company went into compulsory liquidation.
Phoenix Oil and Transport Company Limited had registered offices at 308 Winchester House, Old Broad Street, until 1923, then 6 Princes Street (1923-1926), 9-13 Fenchurch Buildings, Fenchurch Street (1926-49) and 33 King William Street from 1949.