Padma Oil Company Limited (POCL) is not only the biggest but also the oldest with its antecedents stretching well back to the colonial period of British-India. Its ancestral enterprise “ Rangoon Oil Company “ established petroleum business in this part of the world by the middle of nineteenth century.
Prior to the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, mainly two oil marketing companies namely Burmah Oil Company ( BOC ) and Burmah Shell Oil Storage and Distribution Company ( BSOC ) were operating Petroleum Business in the area what now comprise Bangladesh. Burmah Shell established Aviation Depot at Tejgaon Airport in the year 1948.
Considering the Oil Marketing situation in erstwhile East Pakistan, Burmah Shell Transferred their share to BOC and in the year 1965 a new company called “ Burmah Eastern Limited “ was formed with 49% share of BOC. The rest portion of the share was issued to public & private individuals of the then Pakistan.
In 1977, Burmah Eastern Limited became a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum  Corporation.
In the year 1985, BOC transferred its entire property in Bangladesh (including share of Burmah Eastern Limited ) in favour of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), Thereafter, the company is renamed as ‘Padma Oil Company Limited’ in the year 1988.