Area BP Gas Stations Out of Fuel until May

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Walter Bird Jr., GoLocalWorcester Reporter

Area BP gas station owners have not seen fuel delivery trucks in days

Several area BP gas stations will be out of gas for several weeks, costing their owners potentially thousands of dollars in lost sales.

According to area station managers, up to as many as 150 BP stations in and around Central Massachusetts are out of gas, and won’t be getting more until at least May 1.

GoLocalWorcester reported on Tuesday that several area gas stations had not received a fuel delivery in several days and were forced to turn away customers and suffer a loss of business they say can’t be estimated.

“People just aren’t stopping in,” said Bill Connor, owner of the BP gas station at 318 Boston Road in Sutton. “If they’re not stopping for gas, they’re not stopping for their coffee or their soda or something to eat.”

Connor hopes May 1 is the magical date for gas to arrive at his station. He and three other area BP station managers have confirmed that is when the Pennsylvania-based Lehigh Gas Corporation takes over leasing operations from Green Valley Oil LLC. The latter company currently distributes fuel to dozens of BP gas stations in Massachusetts. Green Valley Oil leases its fuel from Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. (GPM), according to Connor.

Bankruptcy to blame?

GPM filed for bankruptcy in December of last year, listing assets and debts of more than $50 million each.

Multiple attempts to reach Lehigh Gas Corporation spokesperson Pete Waldron for comment have been unsuccessful. GoLocalWorcester was also unable to reach a GPM representative. Dozens of telephone calls placed to Green Valley Oil in East Providence were met with a busy signal. A spokesperson for BP on Tuesday said that company has nothing to do with the problem, because it only provides the fuel at tanks that are picked up by distributors for delivery to local stations.

Charles Habib, owner of the BP station at 390 Belmont St. in Worcester said up as many as 150 stations get their gas from Green Valley. He did not mince words when describing his displeasure with the company.

Losing Customers

“That company jeopardized about 150 stations,” he said, saying the company hiked up gas prices by 20 cents. “Imagine how many employees are working at these places. We almost went out of business. Pretty much we lost a lot of customers and a lot of gasoline sales.”

Station owners earn a commission off the sale of each gallon of gas. Habib makes 7 cents a gallon. Others make less, such as the BP station in West Boylston, where the manager said he earns 6.5 cents per gallon.

In Sutton, Connor said a gas delivery is not likely in the coming days, saying, “I’ve talked to my (Green Valley) representatives and they have no idea if and when we’ll be getting gas."

GoLocalWorcester called the Green Valley representative for Connor’s station and left a message that was not immediately returned.

The problems for some gas stations started before they ran out of gas, according to Habib, who said his gas sales dipped steadily under Green Valley Oil’s distributorship.

“I was doing 80,000 gallons a month,” Habib said of business before he received his fuel from Green Valley Oil. “I started selling 25,000 gallons after they took over. I mean, imagine that.”

As long as there is no gas, overall business will suffer, Connor acknowledged, hinting at the possibility of having to let go of some employees if things don’t improve soon by saying, “I don’t have to for now. I won’t have to until the loss (of business) amounts to too much.”