Campsa

The Petroleum Monopoly Lessee Company (CAMPSA), was a Spanish oil company created from the Petroleum Monopoly Law of 1927. Its function was to manage the granting of the state oil monopoly, according to the Royal Decree Law of June 28, 1927 promoted by the Minister of Finance during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, José Calvo Sotelo. It was originally a mixed company with minority participation from the State, which won the concession in 1927 (renewed in 1947). In 1977 the State assumed 50% of the share control.

History

Origins and creation

In 1917, the idea that Spain should control energy resources began to be debated. At that time the Spanish energy market was controlled by the Seven Sisters, companies such as Shell, with English capital, and Standard Oil, with American capital. The international economic and political situation arising from the First World War allows the government of the Primo de Rivera Dictatorship to expropriate foreign companies and create a company under Spanish control and with the presence of the state.

Primo de Rivera promoted an industrial protection policy that sought to strengthen Spanish industry, a key element for this objective was the control of energy resources and, mainly, oil and its derivatives. Campsa's objective was to be the center and driving force of a national industrial conglomerate that would promote the petrochemical and chemical industry by controlling the energy sector.

The Minister of Finance of the government of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, José Calvo Sotelo, was in charge of creating Campsa. In a letter that he sent to King Alfonso XIII he explained the needs of the creation of the oil company saying:

Oil is a basic industrial factor; it is also a substantive element for national defence.../... The oil in Spain is monopolized in fact by two large industrial trusts, the Standard Oil and the Shell, which since 1925 have shared the benefits of the Spanish market.

On June 28, 1927, the Royal Decree published the public tender for the management of the created monopoly that would be awarded by the State Administration. This award falls to four large banks, Banco de Vizcaya, Banco Hispano Americano, Banesto and Banco Urquijo, maintaining all of the capital in Spanish hands and the state reserving a minimum of 30%.

The creation of Campsa was felt in Spanish industrial progress and mainly in the refining industry.

These companies, Shell and Standard Oil, controlled 80% of the world oil market, which led to the initiation and maintenance of a diplomatic campaign against the Spanish government and a boycott of the sale of crude oil to Spain. The newborn USSR was the only state that was outside these acts, with which Spain negotiated the acquisition of Soviet oil. The destabilization process, promoted by the United States and the United Kingdom, ended up contributing to the overthrow of the Primo de Rivera Dictatorship in January 1930.

During the period of the Second Republic, CAMPSA's activity focused on the marketing of oil and its derivatives, for which it built 16 storage areas and another 34 smaller storage points. However, it practically did not develop exploration activities for oil fields on Spanish soil nor did it acquire fields abroad.

The civil war

After the outbreak of the Civil War, in July 1936, as happened with other institutions, CAMPSA was divided between the two sides and during the war two business structures came to operate separately. In the republican zone the The company initially controlled most of the oil reserves that existed in Spain at the time of the war. However, from very early on the company faced serious difficulties in obtaining oil due to the Non-Intervention Pact promoted by the authorities in London and Paris. Despite this circumstance, the Republic would manage to obtain its supplies through the Soviet Union and Romania. At the same time, in the Franco zone, CAMPSA would sign, in November 1936, an agreement with the North American company Texaco that guaranteed it the supply of oil.. Texaco's president, the pro-Nazi Torkild Rieber, played a key role in the negotiations.

During the course of the war some of the CAMPSA facilities were seriously affected by military actions, bombings, etc.

Franco period

Under the Franco dictatorship, the monopolistic regime instituted by Calvo Sotelo was maintained, although the relations between CAMPSA and the authorities were not idyllic. Among Falangist circles, the lack of investment by the company was criticized, which at the time of 1946 had not built a single refinery. In the context of the postwar and autarky there was a serious lack of fuel, so Various initiatives arose from the National Institute of Industry (INI) aimed at obtaining hydrocarbons. In 1947 the Petroleum Monopoly was reorganized through a new law that returned to the State the capacity to grant concessions for hydrocarbon activities, while those that were related to distribution and marketing remained under the exclusive jurisdiction of CAMPSA. In essence, the law replaced the old lease with a regime of deconcentration of services and reinforced state intervention.

In 1957 the company participated together with the semi-state REPESA in the creation of the public limited company Butano, with CAMPSA controlling 50% of its capital.

After the approval in 1958 of the Law on the Legal Regime for Research and Exploitation of Hydrocarbons, CAMPSA modified its research strategy and partnered with North American companies. It came to participate in the exploitation of the Ayoluengo oil field through of a consortium, Amospain-Campsa, where it had a 50% shareholding. This deposit, located in the province of Burgos, had been discovered in 1964 and put into operation three years later. Its production, however, never reached high levels. During the 1960s there was also an important development of fuel production capacity, as several pre-oil refineries were inaugurated throughout the country.

Reorganization and disappearance

In 1981, the integration of the company into the National Hydrocarbons Institute (INH) was decreed, which brought together other state companies in the energy sector such as ENPETROL or PETROLIBER. This measure was part of the government's response to address the consequences of the second oil crisis. At that time CAMPSA had a workforce of 9,571 workers and a wide network of facilities that were dedicated to storage, as well as various transport elements: tankers, tank cars and tank trucks.

In 1987, Repsol was created by the National Hydrocarbons Institute, with Campsa being one of its subsidiary companies. Due to antimonopoly requirements imposed by the European Economic Community (currently the European Union), the state monopoly on oil ended in January 1993. As a consequence, CAMPSA's commercial network - excluding airports - was dissolved, and its assets were distributed among the various oil companies that at that time operated in the Spanish market based on their share of presence in it: Repsol, Cepsa and BP. (British Petroleum), mainly. CAMPSA itself disappeared as a company on January 14, 1993. With the remaining logistics assets of the monopoly, the Compañía Logística de Hidrocaburos (CLH) was established.

The "Campsa" brand was incorporated into the Repsol company as a simple trademark of this company.