BP/AMOCO

BP AMOCO PULLED THE PUMPS FOR HIS GASOLINE BUT NOW THE MAN WHO RUNS A LOCAL GASOLINE STATION IS FIGHTING BACK.
JOHN GRIVEAS LEASES THE CONGRESS GASOLINE STATION IN LAKE WORTH AND WAS OUTRAGED THAT BP AMOCO ORDERED HIS TURBINE PUMPS TO BE REMOVED OVER THE WEEKEND. THE UNDERGROUND PUMPS WERE REMOVED AT NIGHT. CUSTOMERS COULDN'T FILL UP THEIR AUTOS FOR HOURS. HE REPLACED THE UNDERGROUND PUMPS TO KEEP HIS GASOLINE STATION OPEN AND IS FILING A LAWSUIT.

JUST A FEW WEEKS AGO BUSINESS OWNERS FROM WEST PALM BEACH TO MIAMI PROTESTED THE OIL GIANT SAYING THEY PROMISED TO RENEW THEIR LEASES BUT DIDN'T. GRIVEAS SAYS THE OIL GIANT IS TRYING TO PUT HIM OUT OF BUSINESS.

PETROPAC IS THE COMPANY THAT PULLED THE PUMPS AND REFUSED TO COMMENT.

CALIFORNIA SHELL DEALERS SCORE CRUCIAL VICTORY

NOVEMBER 06, 2002 -- LOS ANGELES -- It's been a long time since running a gas station has been reasonably lucrative for independent franchise dealers like Al Buczkowski, who runs a Shell convenience store in Oak View, Calif.

But a $71 million dollar jury award against Shell last week in Los Angeles Superior Court has given Buczkowski and other Southern California dealers hope they eventually will get a break, according to the Ventura County Star.

The 12 dealers in the Valu Gas vs. Equilon Enterprises lawsuit, which includes Buczkowski, two other Ventura County dealers and a former area station owner, will share $5.5 million in direct damages and $66 million in punitive damages. Shell said it plans to appeal the verdict.

A jury found that in the late 1990s Equilon Enterprises intentionally misled franchise dealers about their right to appeal high rent increases on their stations. "For a time, I had to buy gas at a higher price than my competitors were selling it to the public," said Buczkowski. "When our customers were commuting to L.A. and could get gas 20 cents cheaper there, they'd do it."

Franchise owners like Buczkowski contend Shell raised rents, charged the owners more for gas than company-owned stations, withheld credit-card payments and instituted other practices that made it difficult to eke out a profit.

"The only real competition in the gas business happens on the street corner, because dealers are entrepreneurs and they'll compete with each other on price if they can," said Dennis DeCota, executive director of the California Service Station and Automotive Repair Association. "But so often now they can't, and that means consumers pay more for gas."

Though drivers in Ventura County and the rest of the state pay some of the highest gas prices in the country, said he struggles to stay in the business. "I couldn't close because I'd have to file for bankruptcy with all the debt," said Buczkowski, who laid off much of his staff in 1999. "Shell has offered to turn this into a company station, but then I would have to become an employee. We would have no security."

Franchise dealers generally lease their stations from the affiliated oil company.
DeCota said the number of franchise stations in the state has declined from 800 to 600 in recent years.