Sunray Mid-Continent Oil Company

Product Details

Historical Context

This company’s stations began selling gasoline at stations under the Diamond name at some point in the early to mid- 1920s. The stations sold motor oil, kerosene, Diamond gasoline, and an anti-knock version known as Nevr-Nox. This antiknock compound must have been something other than Ethyl at the beginning, because it was touted as being “non-poisonous” on some versions of signs and globes from the 1920s through 1933.

In 1933, “D-X” gasoline was introduced. It is theorized that this name was in reference to “Diamond – X,” suggesting an “X-factor” or unknown substance in the gasoline that made it superior to others. The D-X name became more prominent, being applied to more than just gasoline. Eventually, by the end of WWII, stations were rebranded from “Diamond” to simply “D-X.”

This merger resulted in two new companies. The Sunray Mid-Continent Oil Company was the production-oriented entity, and the D-X Sunray Oil Co. was geared primarily towards marketing and distribution. Stations continued to operate under the D-X name (changed to DX in or about 1957). Sunray stations added the D-X logo to the bottom of their logos at the time of the merger, but by 1962, all were rebranded to DX.

Also in 1962, a name change took place for DX Sunray. The positions of the names were reversed, yielding the Sunray DX Oil Company.

1968 brought about the end of Sunray DX, as a merger with the Sun Oil Company (Sunoco) resulted in its dissolution. The DX stations located in Sunoco marketing areas were rebranded, but the stations outside of these areas remained DX until after 1980. It was in this year that Sun began to rebrand all of the DX stations gradually, the last of which disappeared in the mid-1990s.

In 1955, significant changes took place in the company. Because Mid-Continent was mainly a holding and marketing operation, it proved beneficial for them to merge with a heavily production-oriented company. In this case, that company was Sunray Oil.

By 1965 Sunray DX was the sixth largest oil company in the world. It was also the oldest, with roots going all the way back to 1858. But in spite of its size and age the company was having some difficulty keeping pace with the rapidly changing socioeconomic landscape of the 1960s. In 1968, Sun Oil merged with Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Sunray DX Oil Company, which refined and marketed gasoline under the DX brand in several Midwestern states, and included several refineries including one in Tulsa that was operated by Sun until its sale was completed in June 2009 to Holly Corporation of Dallas, Texas.

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