Earnheart Oil sells seven c-stores to Perfect Food and Gas, wholesale business to Fleet Fuels
Earnheart Oil is out of the convenience business. The Oklahoma company sold its seven c-stores to Perfect Food and Gas and split off its wholesale fuels, transportation and lubricants operations to Fleet Fuels, according to C-Store Dive.
Earnheart did not shop the company as a single unit. Retail went one way and the supply and hauling book went another. Some sellers are splitting the two when the retail sites and the wholesale contracts appeal to different buyers. Fleet Fuels picks up rack relationships and rolling stock. Perfect Food and Gas picks up seven stores and whatever inside sales come with them.
For jobbers in the region, the near-term question is supply continuity. Wholesale customers on Earnheart's book now answer to Fleet Fuels, and branded contracts and allocation history do not always survive a transfer intact. Some accounts may see terms change at renewal.
Goldman's reversal on Hormuz
Goldman Sachs warned last week that an oil glut was coming. This week the bank warned the opposite, saying renewed hostilities in the Persian Gulf threaten an extended supply disruption. "While Middle Eastern producers have started reopening their shut-in wells over the last month, Hormuz disruptions could slow down the production recovery," the bank's commodity analysts said, per Bloomberg.
Middle East production is still 10.5 million barrels a day below pre-war levels, according to Goldman via Bloomberg. Wells are coming back, but slowly, and Goldman flags recent attacks on tankers as the thing that could stall the recovery.
The crunch under calm prices
Crude prices have settled, but physical fuel markets are tight. Fuel markets are flashing a supply crunch, per marketscreener.com, and that gap between flat futures and tight barrels is the one jobbers actually feel at the rack. If you are buying unbranded and betting on a soft screen, watch your terminal rather than the ticker.
Russia's own fuel-producing regions are still working through a supply crisis, according to The Moscow Times. Domestic Russian tightness usually means fewer Russian refined barrels moving to export.
Russian barrels into Indonesia
About 770,000 barrels of Russian crude landed at Balikpapan at the end of June, the first cargo under an April supply deal, per customs data cited by Bloomberg. The cargo displaces other suppliers into Indonesia rather than adding to the global pool.
What to watch
Whether Fleet Fuels holds Earnheart's wholesale accounts through renewal. Whether Middle East production keeps climbing back. And whether rack differentials keep widening while crude sits still.