Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Valero is one of the biggest gasoline refiners in the country, certainly in Texas (based in San Antonio with a big refinery in Corpus Christi). IIRC they are a pretty small percentage on the west coast. Just like ARCO and Unocal/76 are invisible most elsewhere.
I've never had an issue with their fuels, all the way back to the Diamond Shamrock days. I try to give them business... but then that's partly because an old high school friend is the CVP/Controller
The 76 brand has been disassociated with the previous Union Oil of California for some time. They sold off their refining assets and fuel marketing to Tosco, which then got purchased by Phillips Petroleum, which then merged with Conoco. Unocal is now owned by Chevron, although they're primarily a natural gas company now. I remember the difficulty they had trying to sell themselves to the Chinese company Sinopec. Eventually the US government nixed the deal and Chevron swooped in.
And speaking of Chevron, apparently there are still a few "Standard" stations still around. Supposedly they have these stations around such that they can indicate that they are actively seeking to protect the brand name for trademark purposes. I saw this station in San Francisco just this past weekend:
Valero is actually has a pretty large presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. They position their brand as a premium brand, although they don't participate in Top Tier marketing and apparently they don't use a megadose of detergent additives (like BP used to market before participating in Top Tier). There's a Valero station near where I live, and it's across the street from a Shell station. Their prices mirror each other. I'm surprised when one station has a different price. They also moved to a cash/credit price difference almost exactly the same time.