was formed with the support of automobile clubs with his father Charles Todd as chairman. AMPCO marketed its products under the name "Europa Oil". By March 1933 bulk terminals had been built, a national retail network established and Europa petrol was on sale. Europa Marketing and Europa Refining were sold to British Petroleum in 1972. The group's participation in the oil business did not end with the sale of Europa. In 1954 it had acquired prospecting licences in the North and South Islands and entered joint venture exploration agreements with Shell and BP in 1955, 1956 and 1961. The consortium's successes included the Kapuni onshore field in 1959 and in 1969 the Maui off-shore gas-condensate field. The Todd group continues to be involved in these and other gas-condesate projects such as the Pohokura gas discovery in 2000 in which Todd has a 26% share. However, Bryan Todd's dream of a major New Zealand oil discovery has never been fulfilled. Tax problems Europa was always hampered by the fact it had to get its supplies from other companies, often themselves in competition with Europa in the New Zealand retail market. For this reason, Bryan Todd searched to set up an independent refining operation either in New Zealand or overseas. In 1954 Bryan Todd entered into an arrangement with Gulf Oil to acquire petroleum products. That company did not give Europa any reduction on "posted prices". However, an arrangement was entered into under which the two companies established a refining company in The Bahamas known as Pan Eastern Refining Company. It purchased crude oil from Gulf at the standard posted price, arranged to have the oil refined by Gulf at one of its refineries, for a fee of 47.5c per barrel, and sold the refined petrol to Europa and the other products ("heavy ends") to Gulf, all at the posted prices. Depending on various factors, Pan Eastern made a profit of 50c for every barrel of crude oil refined, or about 5c for every gallon of petrol Europa purchased. This profit was shared between Gulf and Europa. Under New Zealand tax law, dividends from Pan Eastern Refining were not counted as income of Europa itself; tax was only levied on Europa's dividends to its shareholders. However, the New Zealand Tax Department (Inland Revenue Department) ruled that the arrangements amounted to a discount off the posted price Europa paid for its supplies from