BISMARCK, N.D. -- As of April 1, BP has stopped selling gasoline products in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, according to The Forum. Most former BP stations have either changed brand names or have gone unbranded, Mike Rud, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association (NDPMA), told the newspaper.
"I think it affects 34 sites in North Dakota," Rud said. Those stations combined sold about 35 million gallons of petroleum products annually, he said. The announcement also affected 11 suppliers, added the Associated Press.
David Oberg is co-owner of former BP stations [image-nocss] in Hawley and Detroit Lakes in Minnesota. He switched to selling Clark petroleum products in November. "You didn't have to switch until April 1," when BP quit processing credit cards, he told the paper.
Valerie Corr, a Chicago-based BP spokesperson, said the company announced in July that it would no longer supply BP-brand gasoline to Minnesota stations served by terminals in Alexandria, Mankato, Marshall and Moorhead. "They are on the edge of what we call our supply envelope," Corr told the paper.
Signs of an impending North Dakota pullout date back to September 2001, when Texas-based Tesoro Petroleum Corp. acquired refineries in Salt Lake City and Mandan, N.D., from BP Amoco. That was when station owners decided whether to switch brands to Tesoro or stick with BP, Rud said.
"They had an option for a few years and now that option is gone," he said.
In metropolitan Fargo-Moorhead, N.D., most former BP stations are easy to spot, said The Forum. Many still carry the aqua and gold striping, now topped with new logos such as Cenex, Holiday, All Stop, Tesoro and others.
Brent Nerland manages former BP stations in Fargo and West Fargo. "We had to be done by the end of March. Now we're with Cenex," he told the paper. "Nothing has changed. It's just now we're buying our gas from Cenex. Before, we were buying it from BP."
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