Gulf Oil LP

For the original Gulf brand, see Gulf Oil.

Gulf Oil Limited Partnership

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Type	Subsidiary of Cumberland Farms
Industry	Petroleum
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Framingham, Massachusetts
Area served	United States East Coast
Products	Fuels, lubricants, greases
Website	www.GulfOil.com

Gulf Oil LP is a major American oil company formed when Cumberland Farms acquired the naming rights to the Gulf Oil brand from Chevron in the United States in 1986. By 2010, Cumberland acquired all rights to the brand in the United States, making it the sole owner and marketer in the country. Formerly based in Chelsea and then Newton, Gulf Oil LP currently shares its headquarters with Cumberland Farms in Framingham, Massachusetts.

History

File:Gulf7eleven.jpg

A Gulf station cobranded with 7-Eleven in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania.

In 1986, convenience store operator Cumberland Farms purchased a license for North American rights to the Gulf brand from Chevron. Chevron still owned the Gulf brand, but made almost no direct use of it as of 2006. Cumberland Farms subsequently operated about 500 gas stations, 20 refined petroleum terminals, and was licensed to use Gulf trademarks and names in 11 states. In 1993, the Cumberland Farms entered a joint venture with Catamount Petroleum LP which together formed Gulf Oil Limited Partnership with Cumberland owning a two-thirds interest in the company. Cumberland has since acquired the company in full. At the time there were still some independently-owned franchises still operating under the Gulf brand within North America, such as the American Refining Group, which is licensed by Chevron to blend and distribute Gulf-branded lubricants.

Gulf Oil's promotions have included sponsorship of major sporting events in the area with advertisements for Gulf in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.^{[citation needed]}

As of June 2008, Gulf had 1800 stations in the Northeastern United States. At that time, Gulf Oil LP agreed to supply the approximately 600 Exxon stations in New England and New York as part of a deal with ConocoPhillips. As part of the deal, Cumberland Farms bought 200 Exxon stations but intended to keep the name.

Also in June 2008, 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 company-owned stations in the Northeast still branded as Mobil. ExxonMobil was selling 820 owned and operated stations in all, plus about 1400 leased stations. At the time, Gulf was the only large local brand in New England, where it had 2000 stations and supplied about 500 stations with other brand names, for a total of 10 percent of the market. The 2003 deal gave Gulf Oil exclusive rights to the Exxon name in New York and New England until February 2010, after which the Exxon name would no longer be used. However, in 2008 Gulf Oil made the decision to stop using the Exxon name in February 2009, asking independent stations to also 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 Mobils. Massachusetts Turnpike Authority announced in summer 2007 a switch of eleven former Exxon stations on the Massachusetts Turnpike to Gulf, and in 2009 the same change was expected to 158 Cumberland Farms owned stations, the Globe said. Gulf supplied 300 other Exxons, of which 200 would likely change to Gulf.

In New England, former Exxon stations have been rebranded as Gulf, in accordance with the consent decree that allowed the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Gulf had been supplying gasoline to these stations since the merger, while the company paid a fee to continue to use the Exxon name. 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.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2009, Chevron USA announced it would no longer serve 1100 stations in 13 states. 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 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. 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. 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.

External links

• Official website