history

In 1959 the Lefkaritis brothers established the first Cypriot oil company, which imported and marketed petroleum products under the brand name Petrolina. The company’s operations expanded rapidly and, in the years that followed, it also entered the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) business, increased its presence in the marine transport sector, and took over the operations of three of its competitors, Agip (Cyprus) Co. Ltd, Centragaz and the Belgian-owned Fina (Cyprus). The latter was founded in 1961 as a private company dealing in the import of petroleum and gas products. It was acquired by the Lefkaritis Group of Companies in 1983 and renamed to Lina Ltd. In 1994, the Group took over Shell (Cyprus) Ltd and rebranded the existing Shell service stations to Agip.

Petrolina (Holdings) Ltd was created in 1999 when Lina Ltd took over all the Group’s activities relating to the importation and distribution of petroleum products, gas and lubricants. Petrolina (Holdings) Ltd went public in 2000 and in the same year the company’s shares were listed in the Cyprus Stock Exchange. In 2001 the company entered the aircraft refuelling sector at Larnaka and Pafos airports through P.P.T. Aviation Services Ltd, a joint venture with the US multinational CHEVRON Ltd and the Lebanon-based Universal Group for Industry and Finance S.A. Two years later, in 2003, Petrolina (Holdings) Ltd acquired 100% of Total Aviation (Cyprus) Ltd which operated in the jet fuelling business. In 2004 Petrolina (Holdings) Ltd was renamed to Petrolina (Holdings) Public Ltd and in 2005, the company acquired 35% of Superlube Ltd, a local company engaged in lubricants blending.