Tech & Biz

ExxonMobil to sell 2,220 gas stations

by Amy Judd | June 12, 2008 at 02:38 pm

1282 views | 17 Recommendations | 12 comments

Exxon Mobil Corp is planning to sell off its company-owned gas stations because they are not profitable enough at the current price of gas.
Business must be bad for them to take this measure!

The nation's largest oil company, which earned nearly $41 billion last year, says it will sell more than 2,000 stations over the next few years.

"The fuels marketing sector is a very challenging market," ExxonMobil spokesperson Prem Nair said, adding that the company is feeling particular pressure from hypermarkets like Wal-Mart that sell gasoline.

ExxonMobil plans to sell 820 owned and operated stations as well as 1,400 stations leased to dealers. The 2,220 stations make up about 1/5 of the Exxon and Mobil stations in the United States. The company says the stations to be sold will continue to sell ExxonMobil product.

"As the highly competitive fuels marketing business in the U.S. continues to evolve, we believe this transition is the best way for ExxonMobil to compete and grow in the future," said Ben Soraci, U.S. director of retail sales for ExxonMobil.

The states with the largest number of ExxonMobil-owned stations are California and New York, each with more than 200. ExxonMobil also has a large concentration of stations in Texas, Florida, Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia

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JeffHuang

at 15:59 on June 12th, 2008

they earned $41 billion last year!?!?!?!?

Amy Judd

at 16:01 on June 12th, 2008

I know, and they're not making 'enough' money apparently.... doesn't make sense to me.

Mikasi

at 16:40 on June 12th, 2008

I know how Exxon feels. I didn't make enough money last year either.

rosco111

at 16:26 on June 12th, 2008

People, look at the numbers!!!! The oil side of the company made money, not the c-store side, it acutally lost money. A corporation is legally bound to make money for it's shareholders, now if you identified a very tiny part of your business that was loosing money, why not get rid of it. The government put soo much restriciton on what ExxonMobil can do that it simply CAN NOT be profitable in the c-store industry!!!!!!! DEREGULATE!

Mikasi

at 16:41 on June 12th, 2008

Don't take this as snotty but I am wondering how deregulation will help minimart owners compete with WalMart gas stations.

rosco111

at 19:29 on June 12th, 2008

Unfortunatley it would not help out the mom and pop stores... What I meant by my comment was that the restrictions imposed against ExxonMobil that aren't imposed against anyone else simply aren't fair. Trust me.... I work for them

rosco111

at 19:31 on June 12th, 2008

Unfortunatley even with deregulation, the hypermarkets are still taking over. They just have tons of power, it is possible to make it independently, but you have to work at it, and ExxonMobil isn't allowed to do what needs to be done to stay profitable in this aspect of the buisness.

futureprogress

at 21:59 on June 12th, 2008

"Don't take this as snotty but I am wondering how deregulation will help minimart owners compete with WalMart gas stations."

Minimarts may not be able to compete with WalMart gas stations -- doesn't mean we should pervert the market so that they do.

Basic free market economics:: You cannot sustain in the marketplace if you do not produce something that somebody wants somewhere for an acceptable price. Simply... produce or gtfo of that market.