The story
Kontinentale Öl was established on 27 March 1941 in Berlin with capital of 80 million Reichsmark (equivalent to 343 million 2021 euros). The company had exclusive rights to trade oil products and to acquire oil assets in German-occupied territories. In addition to the occupied territories, it operated its subsidiaries also in Germany.
In Romania it acquired shares in Concordia and Columbia oil companies which belonged to French and Belgian owners. Later it acquired 50% in the oil company Astra Română.
For the proposed oil production in the Caucasus region, the subsidiary Ost Öl GmbH (Ostöl) was founded in August 1941. The company purchased rigs, vehicles and other production equipment; however, except in Maikop, the oil fields in the Caucasus were never captured by the German Army. Actual oil production in Maikop was minimal, amounting to around 1,000 tons from November 1942 to January 1943, which was used locally for transport purposes. See also Operation Edelweiss.
In July 1941, Baltische Öl GmbH was founded for the oil shale extraction in Estonia. All of the existing oil shale industry was merged into that subsidiary. The company operated in Estonia until September 1944, when Soviet troops were advancing into Estonia. About 200 oil shale specialists employed by Baltische Öl were evacuated to Schömberg, Germany to work the Operation Desert (Unternehmen Wüste).
In August 1942, Karpathen Öl was established which took over oil assets in Galicia.
In 1944, Kontinentale Öl bore huge losses due to the German retreat and the associated loss of assets. After the war the company was placed in trusteeship. In 1949, it was decided to dissolve the company as of 31 October 1950. However, the liquidation was not completed until 1966.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kontinentale Öl, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3