The story
Founded by Roger Tamraz in 1988.1
The origins of the Oilinvest Group date back to 1988, when the Group was established to consolidate a number of European energy investments that were made by the Libyan state. The ‘Tamoil’ brand name was born following the acquisition of a refinery and Amoco and Texaco retail network in Italy.
During the 1990s Oilinvest expanded its Tamoil brand rapidly by increasing its position in Italy and entering markets in Switzerland (1990), Germany (1991), Spain (1992) and the Netherlands (1993) before moving into Egypt in 1993. From 2000 onwards, Oilinvest expanded its activities in Africa in over 19 African countries before selling the African business to another Libyan company.
Oilinvest formally severed its link to the Muammar Gaddafi government of Libya in 2011 by moving most of its stock from the Libyan government to a Dutch stichting (foundation), which allowed the company to continue operation despite EU sanctions on Libya. As of September 2012 it had returned to 70% ownership by the Libyan National Oil Corporation and 30% by the Libyan government.
From Wikipedia’s article on Tamoil, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4