TAUNTON, Mass. -- A Taunton, Mass., Lukoil gas station is in the process of rebranding to BP, reported The Taunton Daily Gazette. The move has drawn some curiosity because of the bad publicity BP has been getting because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The red-and-white Lukoil sign was still up as of last Thursday, but BP's logo is now affixed to the top of the islands and on the pumps of the full-service station, said the report.
A station employee explained that a deal to convert Lukoil stations to the BP banner had been struck well before the [image-nocss] oil spill began. (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
The employee added that he does not expect customers will boycott the station. "People need gas, it's not a big deal," he told the newspaper, noting that the station offers competitive prices. He also stressed that the station's high level of customer service will negate any attendant bad publicity.
Separately, Fisher Oil Co. will be selling Shell Oil Co. fuel at four former Chevron gas stations in the New Bern, N.C., area following Chevron Corp.'s decision to discontinue Chevron and Texaco motor fuel sales in several Southeastern, Middle Atlantic and Midwestern states, reported The New Bern Sun Journal.
San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron announced in December that it will end the sale of Chevron and Texaco fuel in North Carolina, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, parts of Tennessee and in Washington, D.C., at the end of the third quarter of this year. (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
Of the 1,100 independently-owned retail stations that will be affected by the change, there are 36 Chevron and 161 Texaco stations in North Carolina, said the report.
The company has a program in place to help the stations transition to other brands, Chevron spokesperson Gus Santoyo told the newspaper, and the company hopes to get most of the stations transitioned by the end of June.
The decision to discontinue fuel sales in those areas was made in order to optimize the company's operations, he said. Sales in those locations made up 8% of the company's total retail fuel sales in the United States last year.
Santoyo said the company operates several oil refineries on the West Coast, whereas the refinery in Pascagoula, Miss., is the location that is the farthest east. "That allows us to maximize distribution and delivery in a much more efficient way than in some areas in the East, where we don't have the same network," he said of the discontinuation. "A lot of strength in our network is in the western United States. We're based and we're headquartered in the West."
Chad Minton, with locally-owned Fisher Oil, said the company could have opted to debrand the stores or to shop for another brand. "We've chosen, because we have four current Shell stores, that Shell is a better avenue for us," he told the paper.
Minton said the company owns five unbranded stations in the area in addition to the four Shell and four Chevron stations. He said Shell is currently the dominant brand among its stations.
"Chevron just didn't do much in this area in terms of trying to get the consumer to notice their product. That in turn hurt their business," he said. "They do well on the West Coast, they do well in the Northeast, they do well in Florida."
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