History

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Orlen ofis
 
• 1853 – at the turn of 1852/1853, Ignacy Łukasiewicz and Jan Zeh used fractional distillation method to obtain petroleum
 
• 1853, 31st July – a symbolic, official date of birth of the oil industry. For the very first time in history, kerosene lighting was used in practice during a night surgery at the general hospital in Łyczakov, Lvov.
 
• 1854 – Ignacy Łukasiewicz founded the first in the world, still active, oil mine in Bóbrka near Krosno (Trzecieski-Łukasiewicz oil company)
 
• 1944 – an institution was established, with the task of securing petroleum industry infrastructure that had survived war and Nazi occupation, and of launching the oil distribution business.
 
• 1944, 14th August – a first official act specifying the name of the organization as the Polish Oil Monopoly was published. However, in October 1944, the name was changed to the State Bureau of Petroleum Products Sales.
 
• CPN owes its “contemporary” name to the Minister of Industry, who on 3rd December 1945 issued a special decree establishing a state enterprise – Central Office of Petroleum Products (CPN), a petroleum retail monopoly. 10 years later, the organization was restructured again and was given the name of the “Central Board for Petroleum Products Trading CPN”.
 
• After another three years, the company reverted to its previous name, which was then combined with the abbreviation “CPN” – Central Office of Petroleum Products “CPN.” The author of the CPN logo (developed in the ’60s of the 20th century) was Ryszard Bojar, who, together with Jerzy Solik and Jerzy Słowikowski, also developed the comprehensive system of visual identification of CPN.
 
• 1998 – The Council of Ministers decided to establish a national oil company by merging CPN S.A. Central Office of Petroleum Products and Petrochemia Płock S.A.
 
• The same year, four of the largest manufacturers of lubricants – Petrochemia Płock, Rafineria Trzebinia, Rafineria Czechowice and Rafineria Jedlicze – founded the company Petro Oil.
 
• 1999 – due to the merger of Petrochemia Płock SA and Central Office of Petroleum Products, a PKN S.A (Polish Oil Concern) – one of the largest oil refiners and petrol retailers in Central and Eastern Europe.
 
• Also the same year, the company Petro – Oil was incorporated into the Polish Oil Concern Capital Group.
 
• As a result of research initiated in late 1999, from amongst over 1,000 proposals submitted, one name was selected – ORLEN, which guaranteed the desired associations and enabled easy interpretation and registration, as a trademark. ORLEN name is derived from ORL- for “ORZEŁ” (Polish: eagle) and its adjective “orli”, and -EN for “ENERGIA” (Polish: energy).
 
• The next step in the building of the ORLEN brand visual identity system was to create a logo, graphic interpretation consistent with the very name. Most prominent Polish graphic artists took part in the contest for the company’s logo. The jury selected the work of Prof. Henryk Chyliński, the author of the logos of inter alia Teraz Polska foundation and the Polish Radio.
 
• The awarded trademark depicted a stylized head of an eagle. Visual identification of the concern was based on the red, white, gray, and silver colours.
 
• 2000, 3rd April – the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders adopted a resolution on taking in by the Polish Oil Concern SA a trade name of ORLEN. For the first time, the ORLEN brand image was presented in 2000, on the occasion of issuing the second tranche of company’s shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
 
• 2002 – Petro Oil Company, a part of the PKN ORLEN Capital Group, changed its name to ORLEN OIL, at the same time taking in a logotype characteristic for the group’s structures.
 
• The same year, the first Platinum brand motor oil was presented to the public.
 
• 2003 – was a year of introducing the complete range of Platinum motor oils.
 
• In 2005, the ORLEN OIL Česko company was established, which is responsible for selling ORLEN OIL products on the markets in the Czech Republic.
 
• In January 2010, the ORLEN OIL Company decided to merge three companies: Platinum Oil in Lublin, Platinum Oil Pomorskie Centrum Dystrybucji in Gdańsk and Perto-Oil Śląskie Centrum Sprzedaży in Olkusz, in order to establish one distribution company named Platinum Oil, seated in Łódź.