Who Owns Castrol?

Charles Wakefield founded Castrol's predecessor, CC Wakefield & Co, in Cheapside, London, in 1899, selling lubricants for trains and heavy machinery. The Castrol name came from the castor oil added to the company's formulas, and Castrol motor oil debuted in 1906 for the new automobile market. The brand quickly became linked to speed and motorsport: Castrol lubricated Malcolm Campbell's land speed record cars and sponsored racing from its earliest decades.

The mid-20th century brought global expansion and a 1966 takeover by Burmah Oil, which created Burmah-Castrol. The brand introduced GTX in 1967 and established the performance positioning it still holds, supported by heavy motorsport sponsorship in Formula One, rallying, and motorcycle racing.

BP acquired Burmah-Castrol in 2000 for roughly $4.7 billion, one of BP's largest brand purchases, and Castrol became BP's flagship consumer lubricant for the next 26 years. Under BP, the brand expanded EDGE and Magnatec premium synthetics, grew aggressively in India and China, and built positions in marine and industrial lubricants.

In 2025, under a new strategy of returning to oil-and-gas core operations, BP announced it was exploring a sale of Castrol, which analysts valued around $10 billion. A December 2025 agreement sold a 65% controlling stake to Stonepeak for approximately $6 billion, with the transaction completing November 2, 2026. Castrol thus became an independent company again for the first time in 60 years, this time inside a private infrastructure investor's portfolio, with BP as a significant minority partner.