AUGUSTA, Maine -- One of the Northeast's largest fuel suppliers has stepped up its presence in Maine's capital, Augusta, reported The Kennebec Journal. Irving Oil, already affiliated with two stores in Augusta, last week announced a partnership with a local owner who will rebrand two former Lukoil locations, said the report.
"We're excited to expand the Irving Oil brand here and looking forward to serving member of our community," Feras Alkurabi, who owns the stores, told the newspaper.
The Augusta stores are two of several new sites to recently open in [image-nocss] Maine, Irving Oil spokesperson E.J. Powers told the paper.
The company has a total of 142 fueling locations in Maine.
Alkurabi, who has owned stations and convenience stores in the Augusta area since 1994, bought the Augusta Quick Mart and Riverside Express in 2007. Both stores were formerly associated with Russian fuel company Lukoil, the report said.
Alkurabi, who owns stations around the state, had sold Lukoil-branded gasoline for 15 years, but said he left the company because it went away from direct retail and now uses different distributors. "I did not feel that was the right fit," he said. "My direct contact with Lukoil had vanished."
Alkurabi added that he was impressed by Irving Oil, which he said supplies 28% of the gasoline market in Maine.
Irving Oil is a family-owned and privately-held regional energy processing, transporting and marketing company headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, in Canada, with U.S. marketing operations in Portsmouth, N.H. With more than 7,000 employees, more than 700 fueling locations, operations from 13 marine terminals and a delivery fleet of tractor-trailers, Irving Oil serves wholesale, commercial and retail customers in Eastern Canada, Quebec and New England. It operates Canada's largest refinery, in Saint John.
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