Imperial Oil Canada selling all Esso gas stations

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Surprised it didn't get mentioned here at all.

Don't have a link handy, but basically Imperial Oil, Exxon's branch in Canada, is selling all its company owned 'Esso' gas stations to various other companies, and exiting the retail gas business completely.

I know they are doing this to focus more on upstream production, wells and oil sands mines where there is probably more $$$; but I'm still suprised they are giving up this market...still lots of $$$ to be made there.

Thoughts?
 
Esso gas always seems to be 2-5, and at times, 10% more in my area. I haven't gone to one in years. Seems like an odd move, as from what I read, as wholesale gas prices are inflated in Canada and the retail stations are money losers(we only have a few independent stations left).
Maybe there's some tax advantage of inflating the wholesale cost and retailing at a loss?
 
I honestly don't go to them very often either.

I think they want to throw that money into oil sands development, so when prices recover they can be one of the biggest players there.
 
Very hard to maintain the corporate image when your clerks are more concerned with reading books, magazines, talking on their cell phones or ignoring the key aspects of the gas business.

I've had an Esso card for 20+ years, I used to justify the slightly higher prices because the stations were kept in better condition, but this has not been the case in the last 5 years.

I might switch over to Petro Canada :eek:(
 
Esso is usually the first to raise the prices and the last to lower them.

The in-store experience is, for the most part, terrible, except for one location in the north end of the city.

Their rewards program (Esso Extra and Aeroplan) is also laughable.

The above is only a few of the many reasons why Petro Canada and Shell stations are always busier than the nearby Esso.
 
Well, Esso is second in doing that with the prices these days. You haven't been watching the Co-ops carefully enough. For Essos, I do like the one by White City, even before it was rebuilt.
 
I have to respectfully disagree with you about the Coop, Garak. While I hate that prices at the Coop Emerald Park location are consistently cheaper than the Regina locations, I've noticed that Esso is generally the first to raise the price and the last to lower it - particularly the Esso located at Vic and Albert.
 
I think we're both just painting things a little broadly. Both have some outliers. I had never realized that the Emerald Park Coop was cheaper, and I don't get by the Esso on Victoria and Albert that often in recent years to have actually had the chance to notice that. I do know that the south Albert Esso is one of the last to lower and first to raise, too. It and the White City Esso are the two twenty-four hour ones, so if I'm for some reason dying for Esso fuel, I'd go out east first. Yes, I'm silly.

My comparisons are drawn mostly off of the north Albert Essos, the Arcola Esso, and the Winnipeg Street Coop. I drive by at least three of those daily, and I usually see the Winnipeg Coop going up first. In fact, as soon as I see it going up, I know it's time to fill up, but I'll have sufficient time to do so. I don't have a lot of use for the Coops anyhow, with their small town Saskatchewan hours. If you close your station by 9 or 10 at night, chances are you'll never, ever see me fill there, and I haven't bought a drop of fuel from a Coop in over two years.

The Arcola Esso does pretty well. Sometimes, it lowers the price before the Shell next door, though that's only about 10% of the time. In fact, right now, they're half a cent cheaper per litre than the Shell across the street, and have been that way for two days, which is a major shock.

Lately, I've found the eastern Regina stations and the ones in the way northwest to do about the best for fuel prices. The south end isn't so hot, and the north end has its good and bad moments. Downtown options are limited to the cab company's shaky product and the Esso you noted, who will raise the price at a moment's notice.

Sir1900 mentioned the in store experience, too. He's quite right. Esso doesn't seem to have embraced the convenience store business as much as some places have. For a convenience store (and points offerings along with convenience store items), it's hard to beat Petro-Canada. I can get more Petro-Points sometimes from four bottles of pop than I can from a tank of premium.

Esso needs to upgrade their points system. While for straight purchases, it's comparable to Petro-Canada, the latter has far more bonus offers and far more options when redeeming.
 
Just a thought on the subject.

It occurred to me that oil companies (production, pipelining, exploration, distribution) might not want to be exposed to the whimsy of storage tank regulations.

"Oh no, we use a different standard now!" are words nobody wants to hear.

The passing grade a tank removal/upgrade got in the '70's, 80's or 90's might not be good enough the next time.

I've heard that soil inspections are now microscopic.

Get out while the gettin's good? Kira
 
That's been an issue here for years, and there are few oil company owned stations for a lot of brands. And, it wouldn't surprise me if that was part of the reasoning. When Shell bought out Turbo, they shuttered most of the stations, for instance, without even replacing them with Shells.
 
You could just bulldoze part of Regina and make an expressway with no exits.
wink.gif
 
I just checked, and only about 30% of the Esso stations Canada wide were owned by Imperial Oil, anyhow. As I already mentioned, none in this city are, with only one having the branded convenience store, as alluded to by sir1900.
 
I don't think it will matter one bit either way. What I'm most interested in is who owns the property itself. Is Imperial Oil remaining the landowner, and just leasing it? I know that Shell is on the title for the old Turbo locations, at least around here.
 
Most of the Esso stations were sold to either existing independents who run the Esso brand (like these guys ) or to other networks that are better at running retail (ie Parkland fuels).

The same thing happened to Esso & Husky bulk fuel stations late last year (also with basically no fan-fare) essentially Imperial oil is still providing the fuel, the Esso brand will still be in tact, but Husky will handle the operations - in the same way the independents who bought the stations from IOL on the gasoline side.

Funny how IOL makes 2.8 billion in the sale of the gasoline assets and then turns around to announce a 2 billion dollar investment in Cold Lake. I guess that money got spent quickly. You were right they are definitely doubling down on upstream.
 
Basically, we've got one bigger outfit that handles Imperial Oil from the distribution side of things in this province. I'm not sure who owns the stations or how many of them, and I rarely personally handled the cheques when one of my companies was paid for work on a service station, and some of the was subcontracted further, so I have no idea about the "name on the cheque," as it were. I do know that Imperial Oil owns no specific stations in Regina, for sure.

Of course, the smaller Imperial Oil operations in rural Saskatchewan have basically shuttered, and Shell got out of that years ago, with farm sizes changing. Here, we've got Co-op and Petro-Canada handling most of the small towns. Petro-Canada doesn't seem to be averse to having a small distributorships dotting the countryside, and the Coops certainly have no concern with that.
 
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