BP Finds New Suppliers for Gasless New England Stations

CHIGAGO -- After several weeks without fuel, some New England BP station operators got good news on Friday when BP announced that it signed contracts with two New England fuel distributors to supply the independently owned stations that were previously serviced by Green Valley Oil.

As CSNews Online previously reported, the fuel supply problem stemmed from Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc.'s (GPMI) December Chapter 11 bankruptcy declaration and its supplier Green Valley Oil subsequently going out of business.

While Getty Realty Corp. is the owner of the BP-branded stations, it had subleased them to GPMI under a master lease, and the properties were then subleased again to individual BP operators. According to BP, a total of 218 sites previously supplied by Green Valley Oil have been affected -- 122 stations in Massachusetts, 55 in Connecticut, 22 in New Hampshire and 19 in Rhode Island.

Under the newly signed contracts, Lehigh Gas Corp. has agreed to supply 69 stations in Massachusetts and 19 sites in New Hampshire. BP also entered into an agreement with NECG Holdings/CPD Energy to supply 40 Connecticut stations, 10 in Rhode Island and two sites in Massachusetts.

Still, these new agreements only cover about two-thirds of the 218 affected locations. BP said its supply and logistics staff continues to work to identify distributors and make the necessary changes to arrange for fuel deliveries to as many of the remaining 78 sites as possible.

"We apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused motorists during the past several weeks and sincerely hope consumers will continue to support the local gas station operators in their community who market BP-branded fuels," the oil company said in a statement released Friday afternoon.

 

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