CAMPSACAMPSACampsa was established in the 1920s as the Cia Arrendataria del Monopolio de Petroleos SA to act as the national Spanish petrol distribution monopoly. After Spain's accession to the European Community, it was required to divest itself of the monopoly and in 1992 opened up the downstream petrol markets to competition. However another former State owned company, Repsol, with interests in refining and upstream oil activities ended up with a majority stake in Campsa and continues to operate it as a secondary brand. As part of the splitting up of the old monopoly a number of new petrol brands came onto the scene; of these Petronor was also acquired by Repsol.
Repsol has expanded rapidly in South America, first by acquiring the Astra company in Argentina which participated in the Eg3 branded service stations. It also controls an oil refinery and 640 stations in Peru. In 1999 it acquired YPF, the former Argentine monopoly oil company, in an audacious bid. To overcome monopoly problems, it then swapped its Eg3 chain for a number of Brazilian service stations formerly owned by BR.
It has grown more slowly in Europe; a small chain in Britain (partly under the Anglo brand) was owned until late 2000 and at one stage it had a few stations in SW France. Today its only non-Spanish fuel retailing in Europe is in Portugal.
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No sheet maps are known from the old monopoly era. Around 1981 the Campsa Guia (guide) was started as a tall format spiral bound atlas and guide to the country, with a map section followed by a gazetteer featuring hotels and restaurants. In 1987, there were 34 folding maps to cover the country at 1:500,000, using cartography by Almax Editores. |
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1992 was an important year for Spain, representing the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage to North America. To commemorate this event, it hosted the Olympics in Barcelona and mounted an international Expo in Sevilla. The Campsa guide included an additional book, produced in rather garish colours, giving practical information for visitors to these two cities and the European capital of culture for 1992, Madrid. It included 6 fold-out maps/plans - one for each city (lacking most street names and drawn in perspective), plus plans of the Olympic stadium, route of the Olympic torch and Expo 92 grounds. |
| The RepsolYPF website also offers for sale the Guía Repsol Portugal - which is described as being a comprehensive tourist and culinary guide containing road maps at a scale of 1:300,000 (including the Azores and Madeira) and street plans of the cities of Lisbon, Oporto, Coimbra and Funchal, as well as detailed information about other places of cultural interest. It also sells a Petronor guide to the Basque country (in Spanish or Basque) but does not indicate if this latest addition to the series includes any maps as well as two Repsol regional guides, again in Spanish and local languages (Catalan/Galician). |  |
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The Campsa Guide to Spain and Repsol Guide to Portugal come with companion volumes detailing wines, and a free CD-ROM. There is now an English language on-line version of the Campsa Guide.
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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 1999-2004 |
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