NEW YORK - Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday it is leaving the retail gas organization in the United States as overpriced crude oil costs press margins.
website filling station might be one of the most public facet of Exxon's service, yet they make up a tiny part of the firm's revenues.
Out of the approximately 12,000 Exxon Mobil branded terminals in the USA, Exxon, the globe's largest publicly-traded oil firm, owns about 2,220.
Exxon prepares to sell those gas station over several years. They include concerning 820 stations that it likewise runs.
The firm will maintain the Exxon and Mobil brands, Exxon spokeswoman Prem Nair claimed.
Customers will still be purchasing gasoline at stations that lug the Exxon and Mobil names, however they will certainly not be possessed by the business.
Service stations have actually struggled, despite having $4-a-gallon plus gasoline rates because they have not had the ability to pass along to consumers their extra expenses from rising crude oil.
According to government information, fuel rates are up around 31 percent over the last year, and also oil costs have actually nearly folded the very same duration.
" We are in a really, really tough market. Margins are reduced," stated Nair. "We feel the best means for us to expand and complete is via our representative network."
In the present environment, the business's benefit from its retail system are "somewhere near a rounding error," said Mark Gilman, an expert at the Standard Co
. He said Exxon was adhering to competitors like Royal Dutch Covering as well as BP Plc in relocating far from possession of solution terminals.
"The retail gasoline service is a very volatile as well as typically reduced return kind of organization as well as therefore the choice," Gilman stated.
Exxon made more than $40 billion in 2007, most of which came from its oil and gas manufacturing around the globe.
"I believe the decision came that it's more of a headache than its worth," stated Oppenheimer & Carbon monoxide analyst Fadel Gheit.
Although the firm does not launch earnings margin figures for its retail arm, Gheit estimated the stations' margin was in between 10 percent and also 15 percent, regarding one-third of its margin on petroleum production.
"The concern is that is going to purchase them, and also just how much are they mosting likely to spend for them," Gheit stated.
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