First off...I'm posting this is the Alleys because it was either here, or in Whatnots...and since gas, or petrol if you prefer, can be quite a hot topic.

Anyhoo...I'm looking for a list of gas stations/companies that only sell gas that's refined from 100% (North) American drilled crude oil. There was a lame email floating around awhile ago that named a few, and claimed that they were verified by the US DOE (Department of Energy), but after searching the DOE's website, Wikipedia, and various Google searches, I can't find a single list that states how much, (if any) foreign oil is used by the specific gas companies.

Why do I care? Well...it's for a side project of sorts. The lame email I mentioned above got me thinking...and while I don't believe any of its claims, I like the thought of buying gas from companies that only drill and refine domestic oil...and not from a company that gets its oil from the Middle East. Hell, at this point I'd be willing to pay a little extra to buy domestic gas than have some of the profits got to Middle Eastern countries.

From the commercials I've seen on TV, I believe that Sinclair and Maverick Country Stores are domestic gas companies...but I can't be 100% sure.

Anyone care to help me out? :help: :rolling:

Noble sentiment, but it completely ignores economic reality. Whether or not you, or even everyone in your state, buys "American" gas won't impact the profits flowing into the Middle East. It would take a net reduction of usage world-wide to do that. I think if you look up that lame email you received on Snopes.com they provide a reasonable explanation of why it's crap.

Noble sentiment, but it completely ignores economic reality. Whether or not you, or even everyone in your state, buys "American" gas won't impact the profits flowing into the Middle East. It would take a net reduction of usage world-wide to do that. I think if you look up that lame email you received on Snopes.com they provide a reasonable explanation of why it's crap.

I'm not looking to put a dent in anyone pocket. It's more for personal gratification. When ExxonMobil and the other big guys report quarterly profits of umpteenth billion dollars, which is based on Middle Eastern oil, I just can't help the primal urge to say, "F*** off! I'm going to support the small/local boys!"

Anyway, after I posted, I found this quote:
Can I tell which country or State the gasoline at my local station comes from?

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) cannot definitively say where gasoline at a given station originated since EIA does not collect data on the source of the gasoline sold at retail outlets. The name on the service station sign does not tell the whole story. The fact that you purchase gasoline from a given company does not necessarily mean that the gasoline was actually produced by that particular company’s refineries. While gasoline is sold at about 167,000 retail outlets across the nation, about one-third of these stations are “unbranded” dealers that may sell gasoline of any brand. The remainder of the outlets are “branded” stations, but may not necessarily be selling gasoline produced at that company’s refineries. This is because gasoline from different refineries is often combined for shipment by pipeline, and companies owning service stations in the same area may be purchasing gasoline at the same bulk terminal. In that case, the only difference between the gasoline at station X versus the gasoline at station Y may be the small amount of additives that those companies add to the gasoline before it gets to the pump. Even if we knew at which company’s refinery the gasoline was produced, the source of the crude oil used at that refinery may vary on a day-to-day basis. Most refiners use a mix of crude oils from various domestic and foreign sources. The mix of crude oils can change based on the relative cost and availability of crude oil from different sources.
And then I found some interesting data on the percentages of imported oil for the Persian Gulf (http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/summary2007.html). This is probably where that email was getting its data from. Also, this .xls document (http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/data/import.xls) has a lot of data too.
The problem with these two documents is that they list the companies that own the smaller guys. Sinclair is obviously Sinclair...but who owns and supplies the gas for the Maverick Country Stores? Who supplies Costco? You see where I'm going with this? :bad:


It seems that Flying J, Frontier Oil & Refining, and Sinclair rely 100% on Canada and US drilled oil. And then there's Sunco, which seems to get the majority of its oil from Western Africa countries, along with Canada, and Russia...which I have no problem with. I wonder what companies Frontier and Sunco own. Hmm...more sleuthing to do. .:rolling:

Looking for a reputable list of American oil companies...

I'm looking for a list of gas stations/companies that only sell gas that's refined from 100% (North) American drilled crude oil.

Are you saying that any company that sells gas not refined from 100% North American oil isn't reputable?
(Or turn it around - is an oil company repuatable simply based on where the oil came from?)

I'm not trying to be my usual smart-ass here. I find it interesting that a company's reputation hinges simply on which country the products it sells come from.

Splunge - my take on this was that Kit was looking for a reputable list of companies, not a list of reputable companies. In other words, the accuracy of the list is what is important, based solely on whether the companies actually sell 100% gas refined from N.A. oil. Whether the companies sacrifice children or senior citizens was not important so long as the gas they sell is 100% N.A.

Noble sentiment...

Why is it noble? Are Arab countries inherently evil? Many are democracies, or at least as close to a democracy as, say, South Korea or Brazil or many other countries that Americans don't seem to hold any ill will towards. And even if they're not "free" are they all supporters of terror? What's the point of "freeing" the good and noble, poor oppressed people of Iraq when, deep down, we think they're all a bunch of terrorists?

Splunge - my take on this was that Kit was looking for a reputable list of companies, not a list of reputable companies.
:doh: That's what I get for posting in the Alley before my first cup of coffee.

However, pretending for a moment that I wasn't OTL, Sir Fink is basically saying the same thing as I was (only better).

Whether the companies sacrifice children or senior citizens was not important so long as the gas they sell is 100% N.A.

LOL! I'm sure all the oil companies sacrifice children and senior citizens...so no, that doesn't matter. :evil: :p

Anyone can make a list...like they did in that email I was referring to...but if it's created/verified by a reputable source, then it's believable. :rolling:

Forgive me my curiosity but what is your goal in this? It doesn't seem to be simple protectionism as you're willing to buy Canadian oil and seem particularly concerned about oil from the Middle East rather than, say, Norway or Nigeria. I get the impression that you don't want to fund some of the dodgy countries that are over there, maybe want to reduce America's reliance on them so the US can be more critical of them but doesn't have to actually be involved as much in the dirty goings on on the ground? I can't see that making a lot of sense. The Middle East has a such a vast share of both reserves and production capacity that it's feasible to ignore their oil, even if you don't like them. You might feel better about buying American but all you're doing is ensuring that somebody else buys Middle Eastern oil (even if they don't care). It might be possible to ignore the Middle East for a short while but not in the long term. The only way of reducing the importance of the Middle East is to reduce our dependence on oil and move to alternative sources. That's not a short term solution of course.

Wait, can you even legallly use the words reputable & oil company in the same sentence?