Independent oil refiner Tesoro Corp. is expanding its retail network by about 290 outlets through two transactions.
It has agreed to buy 51 Albertson’s Fuel Express stations from SUPERVALU Inc. for $34 million and plans to invest $5 million in branding capital. The stations are in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.
From Thrifty Oil Co., Tesoro will lease 241 retail stations, most of them in southern California, for an initial term of 10 years and invest $28 million in branding capital.
Excluding outlets covered in these deals, Tesoro’s retail system includes nearly 1,200 branded stations, of which it operates 375 under the Tesoro, Shell, and USA Gasoline brands.
Through subsidiaries, Tesoro operates seven refineries in the western US with total crude capacity of 665,000 b/d.

Bob Tippee | Editor
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.