Gulf Oil LP
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| Subsidiary of ArcLight Capital Partners | |
| Industry | Petroleum |
| Predecessor | Gulf Oil |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States |
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Number of locations
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2,300 (2015) |
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Area served
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United States East Coast |
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Key people
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Jerry Ashcroft, President and CEO |
| Products | Fuels, lubricants, greases, marine lubricants |
| 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 US, making it the sole owner and marketer in the country. Once based in Chelsea and Newton (Massachusetts), Gulf Oil LP then shared its headquarters with Cumberland Farms in Framingham, Massachusetts. In 2015, Cumberland sold the company to ArcLight Capital Partners and moved the company to its own office in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts.
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 little use of it by 2006. Cumberland Farms then operated about 500 gas stations, 20 refined petroleum terminals; it was licensed to use Gulf trademarks and names in 11 states. In 1993, Cumberland Farms entered a joint venture with Catamount Petroleum LP, forming Gulf Oil Limited Partnership with Cumberland owning a two-thirds interest. Cumberland since acquired the company in full. Then, there were some independently owned franchises operating under the Gulf brand in North America, including American Refining Group, which is licensed by Chevron to blend and distribute Gulf-branded lubricants.
Gulf Oil has sponsored major sporting events in New York City, Boston, Manchester, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
In June 2008, Gulf had 1800 stations in the northeastern US; Gulf Oil LP agreed to supply the approximately 600 Exxon stations in New England and New York in a deal with ConocoPhillips. The deal included Cumberland Farms buying 200 Exxon stations, but intended to keep the name. That month, 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 Mobil-branded company-owned stations in the Northeast. ExxonMobil sold 820 owned-and-operated stations, plus about 1400 leased stations. Then, Gulf was the only large local brand in New England, where it had 2000 stations, supplying about 500 stations with other names, for a market share of 10 percent. The 2003 deal gave Gulf Oil exclusive rights to the Exxon name in New York and New England until February 2010, when "Exxon" would be dropped. However, in 2008 Gulf Oil decided to stop using the Exxon name in February 2009, asking independent stations to 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 extended to 158 Cumberland Farms owned stations, the Globe said. Gulf supplied 300 other Exxons, of which 200 would likely change to Gulf. 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.
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Wikipedia