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Mobil brand returns with Medford station
A Portland distributor is returning Mobil brand gasoline to the Rogue Valley, starting with this station at 525 N. Central Ave. in Medford. The station will be the first in Oregon to sell gas via Mobil's Speedpass system. By GREG STILES A familiar trade sign, absent from the Northwest for a decade, has returned to the Rogue Valley. Mobil brand gas is available for the first time since British Petroleum replaced the last Mobil brand service station on Barnett Road in Medford in the early 1990s. "We will kick off the reintroduction of Mobil in Southern Oregon and from there you will see them on freeways and major arterials," said Glenn Zirkle, president of WSCO Petroleum, a Portland-based Mobil and Exxon distributor. "Expect to see 60 or more Mobil brand stations by the end of 2003." More significantly, the station at 525 N. Central Ave. in Medford will be Oregon's first to offer a new payment technology, allowing motorists to fuel up sans cash, checks and credit or debit cards. Mobil customers already have the Speedpass in many parts of the country and will have it here by the Nov. 16-17 grand opening. A tiny transmitter - either implanted in a 1-inch window sticker or attached to a key chain - will activate fuel pumps, using satellite connections to indicate grade of gas, what credit card account will be billed and whether a receipt is printed. "As long as you're within range, you can activate it and you don't have to fumble with cards," said WSCO Vice President Gene Tish. "And the receipt only shows the last four digits of the credit card number, so nobody can steal the number. It's so finely tuned that if you're out of range three or four seconds, it automatically shuts down so no one else can fuel up on your account. As soon as you pull away from a pump, the activation is killed." The key chain attachment or window sticker may be obtained by calling 1-877-733-3727. The transition cost for the service stations is $50,000 to $75,000, but cosmetic changes are just part of the equation, Tish said. New Jersey, the only other state with a ban on self-serve gasoline, was among the last states to have the technology installed because of the cost involved. WSCO Petroleum operates 65 stations in Oregon and Washington and supplies another 85 with fuel. In 1983, there were five Mobil stations in Jackson County. WSCO's downtown station has been variously known as Jackson Street, Regal, Astro and Shell over the past six decades. Tish said that WSCO has changed its Astro station in Sutherlin to Mobil, is in the process of rebuilding a former Shell station in Roseburg and is building a new one that will open this winter in North Bend. "Mobil left on very good terms," Tish said. "They just didn't have the refining capacity here. But in Southern California, Mobil is what Chevron and Texaco have been here. We've been Exxon jobbers as well. Some stations will want to change or build a new station and we can brand that for them too." Tish said WSCO's Astro stations at West Main and Riverside, as well as those in Ashland and Grants Pass, could switch to Mobil in time. ExxonMobil Corp., headquartered in Irving, Texas, is the world's largest petroleum and petrochemical company. Its subsidiaries have operations in more than 200 countries. In the United States, ExxonMobil markets both Exxon-branded and Mobil-branded gasoline. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com. |
