"And price rise is not to be taken lightly; we're up 70 cents here in Massachusetts from a year ago," he added. "But the SPR was made for a real emergency where there were gas lines and a lack of supply. [image-nocss] I wouldn't want to shoot that bullet in case some really bad stuff happens in Saudi Arabia."
And the recent unrest in Saudi Arabia worries Petrowski. He calls that a "real game-changer."
Petrowski, never lacking opinion on petroleum issues, also put on his economic hat to discuss the rise in gasoline prices and what might happen in the future.
"Unfortunately, it's going to go higher. It's almost inevitable," he said. "With interest rates remaining low, with what's going on in the Middle East, you would really have to thread the needle and be very, very lucky not even a minor supply interruption. We're tight on supply worldwide, so I think we could go up another 10% or 20%."
Petrowski, CEO of Framingham, Mass.-based Gulf Oil L.P., the parent company of Cumberland Farms, also shared some thoughts on the convenience-store chain's current test of drive-thrus.
"We've opened one in Kingston, [Mass.]. We've got a couple more on the drawing board," he said. "We're doing all of our Cumberland Farms over, [and] to the extent we can do drive-thrus, we will."
Pleased with the results so far, Petrowski said there are challenges to the concept.
"They're more costly to construct. They're more costly for labor," he said. "But it's something we want to try out because we think for convenience retailing of the future, having a drive-thru is something our customers want."
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