Texaco Jamaica has hit its centenary, but has not lost its vigour.

The petroleum marketing company whose top spot in the gas retail market is under threat from acquisitive French rival Total Jamaica, says it has a plan to maintain its edge.

GB Energy Jamaica-Texaco CEO Mauricio Pulido, speaking with the Financial Gleaner on Tuesday, says the company will be adding eight new service stations by this year end 2019 and will expand the network of stations outfitted to supply or pump autogas, its liquid petroleum gas based product, from one to 15.

GB Energy, which currently operates more than 70 Texaco stations, saw its place as the largest retailer threatened last week when Total announced it was buying another Jamaican service station network, Epping, which would add 17 stations to its network, pushing Total’s total to 74.

But Pulido indicated that Texaco intends to retain its pole position. GB Energy itself has owned the assets only since 2012, when it acquired the network from Chevron. Texaco was third in the market at that point.

“We are happy that the competition is moving. It makes the market more interesting,” he commented to the Financial Gleaner on the margins of the launch event for Texaco’s celebration of 100 years of operation in Jamaica. “In terms of size they will be getting to around 75,” he said of Total Jamaica.

In an update on Texaco’s operation, he said the network now comprises 72 stations – including its airport outlets and the newest station opened along the North South Highway – and would grow to 78 or 80 by year end.

Among the new stations coming on stream, in which the company will be investing up to US$2 million, the targeted sites are Priory in St Ann; Ironshore and Paradise in Montego Bay; the parish of Clarendon; and Duncans in Trelawny.

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