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While most of the affected stations in the Kansas City area have found new fuel suppliers, at least two have closed, the report said. "Closed until further notice" signs were posted this week at a Shell station in Prairie Village and a Grab-N-Go convenience store in Overland Park.
Before the bankruptcy filing, Crescent Oil supplied fuel to 340 stations in six states, including dozens in this area. Stations selling Conoco, Phillips 66, Shell and Valero fuel are among those served by the company. For some stations, Crescent Oil was simply the supplier of wholesale fuel. But the company owns some stations that it operates or leases to others. Crescent also leases some stations and then subleases them to others.
There are signals that Crescent Oil plans to sell its retail stores, said the report. The bankruptcy court approved the hiring of a financial adviser, which wants to break the leases and then sell the stations to other parties. "We want to sell the stores within the Chapter 11," John Tittle Jr. of NachmanHaysBrownstein Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company that helps troubled companies, told the newspaper. "Any kind of closed stores hurts that process."
The bankruptcy triggered a feeding frenzy among other fuel distributors seeking to gain new customers. Many of the stations that have new suppliers have been able to buy fuel on credit, but others must pay cash on delivery if they want to replenish their storage tanks.
"There are still some that have not made other arrangements," F.J. Cronenwett, a manager for Robson Oil, an area distributor, told the paper. "It's been a very interesting few weeks."
Shell said Monday that interim arrangements are being made to supply stations selling the company's brand of fuel.
Meanwhile, many of the affected stations have stopped accepting credit cards at the pump in part because those payments were being routed to Crescent Oil. Customers who want to use credit cards must go inside to make payment, causing some stations to lose business, said the report.
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