MFA Oil Company is a farmer-owned cooperative formed in 1929 with more than 40,000 members. The company supplies fuels, lubricants and propane to customers in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa. Through a subsidiary, MFA Oil operates Break Time convenience stores in Missouri and Arkansas and Jiffy Lube and Big O Tire franchises in central Missouri.
“MFA Oil Company is committed to helping to do our part to support and grow the usage of higher blends of ethanol, this is why we initially joined Growth Energy Market Development.” says Tom May, Director of Marketing for MFA Oil.
MFA Oil currently offers E10 in all of 166 PetroCard 24 unmanned fueling locations as well as 79 Break Time convenience stores. MFA Oil offers E85 at 29 of the PetroCard 24 locations in Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa and 22 Break Time locations in Missouri. The company currently has plans to add a blender pump this year through a pilot program with the Missouri Department of Agriculture and the Missouri Corn Growers Association.
“As a Farmer Cooperative it is part of their mission to support our farmer members and in turn support homegrown fuels such as ethanol,” noted May.
MFA Oil Company has long been an advocate for ethanol, selling a 10% blend of ethanol in all of our gasoline for the past decade. They believe that ethanol not only brings a better value and helps lower the cost of gasoline to our customers but the positive economic impact back to our rural economies is significant.
MFA Oil installed their first E85 pump in Columbia, Missouri in 2004 and over the next couple of years grew that number to 25 locations. In 2006 through a partnership with Mid Missouri Energy of Malta Bend, Missouri they were able to quickly grow the number of installations while maintaining a 20 percent discount to regular gasoline. They had to make sure that customers that were trying E85 found a value and consistency in the price in order to establish a market.
May went on, “Through a marketing and education program, we found that E85 customers found value beyond just the price at the pump. They knew that they were making a choice to support local farmers and the local economy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Infrastructure is one of the greatest challenges we face towards growth and acceptance of higher blends of ethanol. The fuel industry is a volume driven industry so installing pumps that do not initially get as much volume as a regular gasoline pump is a tough sell, however higher blends of ethanol has reduced the price at the pump which boosts volume which in turn encourages companies to consider the investment. The IRS has hindered infrastructure growth by its interpretation of the tax credit that is available. On top of that Underwriters Laboratory has been slow to approve equipment. We have to knock down these barriers so that there is an incentive to put pumps in areas where there is a high density of flexible fuel vehicles.”
