Gulf Oil LP is an American oil company formed when Chevron Corporation acquired the naming rights to the Gulf Oil brand in the United States for $13 billion in 1985.[1][5]
Chevron acquired rights to the Gulf Oil brand in March 1985 for $12 billion.[5][1] Through the merger, some 3,000 Gulf stations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas were rebranded "Chevron". By late 1985, the merger was complete.[6] In November 1985, it was announced that Chevron had agreed to sell 4,000 fuel stations to convenience store chain operator Cumberland Farms, in order to reduce its debts taken from the acquisition of Gulf.[1]
In 2010, Cumberland Farms purchased a license for North American rights to the Gulf brand from Chevron. Chevron still owned the Gulf brand, but made little use of it by 2006. Cumberland Farms then operated about 500 fuel stations and 20 refined petroleum terminals; it was licensed to use Gulf trademarks and names in 11 states. In 1993, Cumberland Farms entered a joint venture with Catamount Petroleum LP, forming Gulf Oil Limited Partnership with Cumberland owning a two-thirds interest.[7] Cumberland since acquired the company in full. There were also some independently owned franchises operating under the Gulf brand in North America, including Nu-Tier Brands, In., which is licensed by Gulf Oil LP to blend and distribute Gulf-branded lubricants.[8]
In June 2008, Gulf had 1800 stations in the northeastern US; Gulf Oil LP agreed to supply the approximately 600 Exxon stations in New England and New York in a deal with ConocoPhillips. The deal included Cumberland Farms buying 200 Exxon stations, but intended to keep the name.[11] That month, The Boston Globe reported that Gulf Oil LP (which had purchased the delivery contracts for over 500 Exxon stations in 2003 after the ExxonMobil merger required divestment) wanted to buy Mobil-branded company-owned stations in the Northeast.[12] ExxonMobil sold 820 owned-and-operated stations, plus about 1400 leased stations.[13] Then, Gulf was the only large local brand in New England, where it had 2000 stations, supplying about 500 stations with other names, for a market share of 10 percent.[12] The 2003 deal gave Gulf Oil exclusive rights to the Exxon name in New York and New England until February 2010, when "Exxon" would be dropped. However, in 2008 Gulf Oil decided to stop using the Exxon name in February 2009, asking independent stations to switch to Gulf. The Enterprise of Brockton, Massachusetts, reported in April 2008 that Verc Enterprises would change 14 Exxon stations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Gulf, but not its five Mobil's. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority announced in summer 2007 a switch of eleven former Exxon stations on the Massachusetts Turnpike to Gulf,[14] and in 2009 the same change was extended to 158 Cumberland Farms-owned stations, the Globe said. Gulf supplied 300 other Exxons, of which 200 would likely change to Gulf.[12] Many of the former Exxon stations feature a rectangular logo that fit into the existing sign standards used by Exxon. Gulf refers to the look as its "sunrise" imaging.
Furthering public exposure, in 2009, the clothing store chain "Old Navy" began selling T-shirts bearing the old Gulf logo, along with the former logos of Standard Oil and Chevron.[15]
In December 2009, Chevron USA announced it would no longer serve 1100 stations in 13 states.[16] On January 12, 2010, after using the name since 1986, the Gulf Oil partnership acquired all right, title and interest in the Gulf brand name in the United States[17] and announced plans to expand the use of the Gulf brand beyond eleven states from Ohio to Delaware and northeastward. Chevron USA had the rights to the Gulf name elsewhere but used Chevron or Texaco in those areas. The first areas where Gulf would expand would be those Chevron and Texaco stations included in the 2009 announcement. Later, The Pantry of Cary, North Carolina would likely consider the Gulf name, according to Gulf Oil COO Ron Sabia, though Pantry officials did not comment on such a possibility.[16] On March 10, 2010, Gulf Oil announced an agreement with Somerset Petroleum to change nine stations to Gulf, five of them Chevron, giving Kentucky its first Gulf stations since 1990.[18] Gulf Oil formed a partnership with Milo Cockerham Inc. to return the Gulf name to Virginia for the first time since 1986. Chevron stations in the southwestern part of the state will make the change in July 2010.[19]
In December 2015, ArcLight Capital Partners purchased Gulf Oil LP from Cumberland Farms[3] for $800 million.[24]
Gulf Oil offered residential and commercial electric service for residents in New York and five New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.[25] This was transferred to Think Energy in 2015.[26][27]
In 2020, Gulf Oil paid $2,400,000[28] to settle allegations that they had "violated Clean Air Act fuel quality standards that are designed to reduce air pollution from motor vehicles".[29]
On July 5, 2023, RaceTrac announced its subsidiary, Metroplex Energy, agreed to buy Gulf Oil LP for an undisclosed amount. On December 14, 2023, the acquisition was completed.[4]
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
Standard Oil is the common name for a corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller. The trust was born on January 2, 1882, when a group of 41 investors signed the Standard Oil Trust Agreement, which pooled their securities of 40 companies into a single holding agency managed by nine trustees. The original trust was valued at $70 million. On March 21, 1892, the Standard Oil Trust was dissolved and its holdings were reorganized into 20 independent companies that formed an unofficial union referred to as "Standard Oil Interests." In 1899, the Standard Oil Company acquired the shares of the other 19 companies and became the holding company for the trust.
Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger with Standard Oil of California, Gulf was one of the chief instruments of the Mellon family fortune; both Gulf and Mellon Financial had their headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Gulf's headquarters, the Gulf Tower, being Pittsburgh's tallest building until the completion of the U.S. Steel Tower.
The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was an American petroleum company that existed from 1870 to 1987. The company, known commonly as Sohio, was founded by John D. Rockefeller. It was established as one of the separate entities created after the 1911 breakup.
Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Dating back to 1886, the company has transitioned from a vertically integrated energy company to a distributor of fuels. It was previously engaged in oil, natural gas exploration and production, refining, chemical manufacturing, and retail fuel sales, but divested these businesses.
Esso is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso", to which the other Standard Oil companies would later object.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has approximately 16,700 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Japan, China, and Indonesia. The company operates its corporate stores mainly under the Couche-Tard, Circle K, and On the Run brands but also under the affiliated brands Mac's Convenience Stores, go!, 7-jours, Dairy/Daisy Mart, Becker's and Winks. Operations in Russia were suspended in 2022.
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California, it is active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation.
Valero Energy Corporation is an American-based fuels producer mostly involved in manufacturing and marketing transportation fuels and other related products. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Throughout the United States, Canada, and the U.K., the company owns and operates 15 refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.2 million barrels per day, two renewable diesel plants that produce approximately 1.2 billion gallons per year, and 12 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of 1.6 billion gallons.
Circle K Stores, Inc. is a North American chain of convenience stores headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc., based in Laval, Quebec. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990 and went through several owners, before being acquired by Alimentation Couche-Tard in 2003. As of February 2020, Circle K has 9,799 stores in North America, 2,697 stores in Europe, and an additional 2,380 stores operating under franchise agreements worldwide.
Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a corporate spin-off in 2011.
Cumberland Farms, colloquially known as Cumby's, is a regional chain of convenience stores based in Westborough, Massachusetts, operating primarily in New England, New York and Florida. Cumberland Farms operates 566 retail stores, gas stations, and a support system including petroleum and grocery distribution operations in 8 states: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, and Florida.
On the Run is a flagship convenience store brand developed by ExxonMobil, used at Exxon and Mobil stations in the United States and at Esso and Mobil stations internationally. Alimentation Couche-Tard acquired the On the Run trademark and franchise network in the U.S. in 2009, and Parkland Fuel did the same in Canada in 2016; ExxonMobil retains full ownership of the brand in the rest of the world.
Atlantic Petroleum was an oil company in the Eastern United States headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a direct descendant of the Standard Oil Trust. It was also one of the companies that merged with Richfield Oil Corporation to form the "AtlanticRichfield Co.", later known as ARCO.
Kyso was an oil company, gasoline distributor, and direct descendant of Standard Oil that operated in the southeastern United States from 1886 until it was acquired by Standard Oil of California in 1961. After the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911, the company was awarded rights to run the oil operation of Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Puma Energy is a Swiss multinational mid- and downstream oil company, majority-owned by Singapore-incorporated Swiss company Trafigura.
Following the 1911 Supreme Court ruling that found Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly, the company was broken up into 39 different entities, divided primarily by region and activity. Many of these companies later became part of the Seven Sisters, which dominated global petroleum production in the 20th century, and became a majority of today's largest investor-owned oil companies, with most tracing their roots back to Standard Oil. Some descendants of Standard Oil were also given exclusive rights to the Standard Oil name.
OTR, formerly On the Run, is an Australian chain of petrol stations and convenience stores based in South Australia. Unrelated to ExxonMobil's On the Run store branding, the OTR brand was first established in 1999 by the Shahin family, who were already owning and operating service stations in Adelaide since 1984. It owns OTR and Store 24.
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