Terrible Herbst gas empire expands

Kevin Rademacher

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

The Terrible Herbst convenience store and gas station empire in Las Vegas is growing.

Herbst Oil Co. has purchased seven Las Vegas-area Texaco stations from Houston-based Equilon Enterprises LLC. The sale was completed Dec. 30, and Terrible's signs are now being installed, said Sean Higgins, general counsel for Herbst Oil.

With the purchase, Herbst now has more than 80 gas stations in four states and about 2,000 full- and part-time employees, Higgins said. He would not disclose the purchase price of the seven stores.

Higgins said the locations were ideal for expanding the Herbst brand.

"We are very happy with the locations," he said. "That's why we got into the bidding process."

Higgins said many of the stores will eventually be upgraded to include more expansive convenience stores typical of Herbst operations. Most will become Chevron stations, but some could carry Arco gasoline, he said. Herbst currently has 12 local Arco stations.

The scope of the renovations will not be know for several months, Higgins said, adding that some stations could be torn down completely and rebuilt.

"We just completed the purchase," he said. "We don't know exactly what we will do. We are just determining that."

Equilon was a joint venture between Texaco Inc. and Shell Oil Co. Equilon's sale of the seven Las Vegas stations is part of the divestiture mandated by the Federal Trade Commission in its 2001 approval of the $45 billion merger of Texaco and Chevron Corp., Higgins said.

Under that divestiture order, the Texaco brand will have to leave the Las Vegas market over the next few years and the company was ordered to sell stations it owned through related entities.

While the stations will carry a related Chevron brand after the sale to Herbst, Higgins said the stores will no longer be owned by the conglomerate, satisfying the FTC ruling.

The FTC order said the divestiture was necessary to "remedy the likely anticompetitive impacts of the transaction."

In addition to Nevada, gasoline marketing assets were divested in 21 other states.