PAZ Oil Company (Israel)
Andre Gasiorowski
- Position: Investor and major co-owner of 50% of the company (1991-93)
- Value: today worth $1.2 bill, trading of $2.5 bill per year third largest private Israeli company
Corporate history
- Paz Oil Company Ltd. (Hebrew: פז) is the largest Israeli fuels company. Its name means "gold" in Hebrew. Paz distributes gasoline and other oil products through a network of gas stations, as well as natural gas for home use (cooking and heating) through its subsidiary PazGaz. The company holds 30% of the Israeli fuel market and 31% of the Israeli gas stations.
- Paz was founded in 1922, as Anglo-Asiatic Petroleum. From 1927 it operated as part of Royal Dutch Shell, under the name Shell Palestine. In 1958 Shell withdrew from Israel under economic pressure from Arab countries. The symbol of the company, a yellow triangle, still resembles that of Shell. The company changed to the ownership of the Briton Isaac Wolfson and the French Nahmias brothers and changed its name to Paz Petroleum Company Ltd. Wolfson sold his company holdings in 1981 to the State of Israel, who sold it in 1988 to the Australian Jack Liberman. In August 2006 Paz won a tender to acquire the Ashdod Oil Refineries with a NIS 3.5 billion bid, from Oil Refineries Ltd; which was forced to break its monopoly on oil refining in Israel. The acquisition made Paz Israel's most powerful energy company.
- In 1991 Andre Gasiorowski and Bogusław Bagsik (called hereinafter in Israel "Polish Group") have purchased from Liberman Family 50% of the Paz Oil Company for 85 mill USD. Transaction was finalized during the Gulf War (Kuwait War) in time of intensive shelling Israel with Scuds missiles by Saddam Husain. Since all banks refused that time to wire-transfer funds to Israel, Gasiorowski and Bagsik delivered 85 mill USD funds from Poland to Israel in cash in their private jet to keep agreed transaction deadlines. In 1993 'Polish Group" sold back all shares to Liberman Family.
- today the largest Israel's supplier of refined petroleum products, controlling 55% of energy in Israel, holding 251 fuel stations, involved in export an import of petroleum products, fuel storage and national wide distribution, crude oil reprocessing, oil exploration, coal import, pharmaceutics production, road constructions, counter trade, processing deals, alternative energy development and distribution (solar systems).
- PAZ Oil Company principal subsidiaries: Paz Investment & Development Ltd., Paz Oil, Exploration Ltd., Aviation Services Ltd., Pazgaz Marketing Co. Ltd., United Petroleum Export Co. Ltd., Pedesco Ltd., Shaal Co. Ltd., Coal United Ltd., Haifa Basic Oils (Shevah) Ltd., PAZ Industries (Lubricatns) Ltd., Oilfabriek Fol Jr & Co.B.V., Pazkar Ltd. , Trigon Engineering Equipment Ltd. , Pazchem Ltd., Pazvit Ltd., P.M.Metal Works & Containers Ltd., Tanker Services Ltd, Pi-Glioth Pertoleum, Terminals & Pipeline Ltd., Oil Exploration of Paz).
- Holding activity: investment public companies, trading in energy products, production and sale of refining and production of basic oils and refined wax, blending of lubricants oils, production (containers, greases, aliphatic solvents, chemicals for agriculture and home applications), re-refining of used lube oils, marine transportation of crude oil, storage for petroleum products, oil exploration activities.
