Farmers Union Oil Company of Moorhead, MN has recently renewed its membership with Growth Energy Market Development. The cooperative also has a retail business, Petro Serve USA. Formed in 1934, it now owns and operates 12 convenience stores in Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota. They also operate a large LP Gas and Bulk Fuels business serving residential, commercial and agricultural customers. They serve approximately 4,000 customers and have a total staff of approximately 150 employees.
According to Kent Satrang, CEO and General Manager of the cooperative, their primary interest in joining Growth Energy Market Development was because they wanted to lessen their dependence on foreign oil imports and help rural communities and family farmers that they call neighbors. “We sell propane, ethanol, soy diesel and traditional petroleum products to our farm customers/owners. We hope to add value by increasing the market share of farm gown renewable fuels through our growing network of retail Petro Serve USA Convenience Stores. We are hoping to partner the abundant Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota with the productive corn fields of eastern North Dakota to create rural economic growth for everyone that works and lives in our state.”
Petro Serve USA has been an avid supporter of ethanol fuels, first offering ethanol in 1985. They have offered E85 since 1999 and more recently have begun offering E30. They initially installed the pumps and started offering blended fuel to offer consumers choices at the pump and also to allow a change in everyone’s pocket books.
Petro Serve currently has one operated and unbranded station that offers three ethanol blender pumps that dispenses regular gasoline, E10, E20, E30 and E85. The station also offers biodisel with blends of B2, B5, B10 and B20. In addition to the unbranded stations, Petro Serve also operates 6 Cenex branded stations that exclusively offer blender pumps and 5 Tesoro branded stations. The Tesoro branded stations will soon offer E10, premium, E30 and E85.
According to Satrang, the biggest obstacle Petro Serve has faced is the lack of biofuels and blender pumps in the mainstream infrastructure of fueling stations. Grand Forks, ND has about 4,000 FFV’s registered inside the city limits and no E85 or blender pump. “Blender pumps are like an ethanol pipeline that runs right from the corn field through the ethanol production plant and right to the FFV’s,” noted Satrang.
Satrang said that it is important to educate consumers about energy independence, about the environmental and economic reasons to promote American green jobs. Petro Serve uses the advertising slogan “Helping America Fuel Better.” However, the slogan serves more of a mission.
“Station owners should entice retailers by installing blender pumps and offering biofuels or it will be impossible to sell significant volumes of renewable fuels, Satrang said. “North Dakota has been an innovative leader of ethanol production, marketing and per capita volume sales over the past ten years. We are proud that our small Congressional Delegation are the lead sponsors on both the Senate and House VEETC bills. ND Governor John Hoeven recently brought farmers, station owners and oil industry to the table to collectively promote Blender Pump Legislation that passed the 2009 State Legislature with a 90% plus positive vote. Ten years ago we had 2 E85 pumps in ND. Two years ago we had 10. Today we have 125+ blender pumps in the pipeline being installed today. The goal by the end of 2010 is that North Dakota will be at about 250 blenders. I believe that within three years every pump in every large city in North Dakota will be a bio-blender pump.”
