Small oil

Washington-area commuters pressed to pay $2 on average for a gallon of gasoline are seeing more options beyond those brands owned by major oil conglomerates.

Independent brands are popping up throughout the area as a result of oil company mergers, such as those combining BP with Amoco, and Exxon with Mobil.

The Federal Trade Commission ordered the companies to sell gas stations to ensure competitiveness. Some brands like Amoco and Texaco were phased out, shrinking the number of brands available to station owners.

The declining number of brands has propelled small petroleum marketers to step in and open stations with lesser-known names like Getty, Liberty, Spirit and Oceanic, said Daniel Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, an Arlington federation representing 8,000 independent petroleum marketers.

Alternative brands to Shell, ExxonMobil and Citgo tend to have cheaper licensing fees and fuel, Mr. Gilligan said. In general, gasoline from major brands runs 1-to-3 cents higher than other brands, though Mr. Gilligan noted there are exceptions.

Mr. Gilligan said he did not know how many gas station brands there are in the United States.

His organization, with six other members from petroleum-marketing companies, banded together to form Petroleum Marketers Oil Co. LLC, a New Hope, Pa., company that licenses the Spirit gas station brand.

So far, Spirit has spread to 200 locations in 14 states, with five in the Washington area.

Some independent station owners use middlemen — also known as jobbers — who pick up gasoline at refineries or terminals and deliver it to stations they have under contract. Others pick up their gasoline through distribution companies.

Larry Ray, treasurer of the Petroleum Marketers Oil Co., said the group pools Spirit station sales to negotiate with refiners for reasonable fuel prices. “The brand was seen as a way to keep sites in business after the market changed,” said Mr. Ray, president of RPC Inc. in Randolph, N.J.

Three Mid-Atlantic companies, Ewing Oil Co. Inc. in Hagerstown, Md., Holtzman Corp. in Mt. Jackson, Va., and Virginia Oil Co. in Charlottesville in 2000 formed the Liberty brand, under the subsidiary Liberty Petroleum.

There are 250 stations using Liberty’s brand in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

The goal is to have Liberty stations across the nation, said Chief Operating Officer stations across the nation, said Chief Operating Officer Tom Alexander.

“The brand was designed for distributors to be able to compete in the unbranded side of the market. There aren’t as many brands as there were 10 years ago,” Mr. Alexander said.

Koo Yuen had the same idea when he and a group of principals created the Lowest Price gas station brand in 1989. Now, 11 Lowest Price locations are in the District and total 34, covering the Mid-Atlantic region.

Victor Mbanefo, who owns the Lowest Price station on New York Avenue in Northeast and another at Rhode Island and New Jersey avenues in Northwest, said the new brand with its bold, red lettering has been a plus for sales.

Lowest Price’s gas prices at the New York Avenue location ranged yesterday from $1.91 to $2.12 for regular to supergrade fuel and $2.12 for diesel. The BP station across the street sold regular fuel that ranged from $2.05 to $2.25 a gallon.

But customers said they chose the station because of its prices.

“I could really care less about the brand as long as the price is reasonable,” said Arlington cabdriver Mow Hess, who stopped at the station for a $10 fill.

Paul Fiore, executive vice president for a Lanham service station trade group, said he expected to see more of the break-out brands.

“The majority of the time, a station owner has a lot more opportunity and gross profit because he is using a different supply chain than those for typical branded gasoline,” said Mr. Fiore, with the Service Station Dealers of America and Allied Trades.