A lot of integrated oil companies have split up into separate upstream and downstream companies; witness Marathon and ConocoPhillips.
Others have sold their downstream businesses piecemeal; Hess is doing that now.
At the very least, integrated oil companies like ExxonMobil have cut way back or eliminated company-owned gas stations.
But now we have a strange phenomenon: one of the nation’s best-known independent oil producers is going into the retail side of the biz.
We’re talking, of course, about Ewing Oil.
On Monday, it will be revealed that somewhere in the US, a real-live gas station will open as Ewing Energies, owned by the fictional Ewing Oil of “Dallas” television fame. The pump prices are expected to be cheap…real cheap.
The whole plan is to get a lot of attention as the new season of the second coming of “Dallas” commences. The first act, back in the 80′s and briefly the 90′s, featured backstabbing, sex, beautiful women and oil. Now it features backstabbing, sex, beautiful women and methane hydrates.
Never mind the fact that in the real world, there’s no such thing as an independent producer who skips the whole inconvenient refining part of things and also owns a gas station, except maybe for Lukoil. (Produces oil, owns the former Getty chain, mostly in the northeast US, but doesn’t refine in the US, though it refines elsewhere.)
Blog post continues below…
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In the US, there’s now the handful of integrateds who refine but don’t own retail; the independent refiners who franchise or own their stations, like Valero; the hundreds of independently-owned branded or unbranded retail outlets, from big guys like RaceTrac to smaller ones who might own a station or two; and now, a whole new category: Ewing Energies, somewhere in the US. (Revised Addendum: The location of the one-day gas station is 466 10th Avenue in Manhattan, an island where there are hardly any gas stations anyway.)
As a big fan of both the original and revival of “Dallas,” let me just say: bravo for marketing genius. I won’t be pedantic and note that an independent E&P company doesn’t own retail. I’ll just sit back and enjoy the new season, as I have since I watched the very first episode in my college apartment in 1978.