History

• 1859: Carless, Capel & Leonard was formed by Eugene Carless. It was later renamed Carless Refining and Marketing Ltd.
• 1870: Carless started selling a volatile inflammable petroleum
  Petroleum
  Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
  
   distillate tradenamed 'Petrol'. That is where the word "petrol" came from. At first it was often used as a solvent
  Solvent
  A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature...
  
  , including to remove nit
  Nit
  * The egg of a louse* Head lice * A trivial detail; the object of nitpicking* Nit , a unit of luminance equivalent to one candela per square metre...
  
  s by dissolving the natural glue that the female louse
  Louse
  Lice is the common name for over 3,000 species of wingless insects of the order Phthiraptera; three of which are classified as human disease agents...
  
   uses to stick the nit to the hair. When internal combustion engine
  Internal combustion engine
  The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
  
  s were invented, petrol was found to be suitable fuel for them. The word 'petrol' is still the generic name for gasoline
  Gasoline
  Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
  
   used throughout the UK.
• 1996: Petrochem Distribution BVBA was established.
• 2000: Petrochem UK acquired Carless from the Spanish Repsol-YPF Group. The resulting company is now called Petrochem Carless Ltd.