Petrofina

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Petrofina was a Belgian oil company which merged with Total in 1999 to form TotalFina. In the United States, Fina's former refining and marketing operations are now owned by Texas-based Alon USA.

[edit] FINA in the United States - "Pink Air" and "Pflash"

Petrofina expanded its operations to the United States in 1956 with the purchase of Texas-based Panhandle Oil Company, which was headquartered in Wichita Falls, Texas, where the firm operated an oil refinery and marketed gasoline through service stations in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. American Petrofina, as the US operation was called, further expanded its presence in the US through the purchase of several small oil companies, the largest being the Cosden Oil Company from W.R. Grace in 1963, which gave FINA a very large chain of service stations in Texas and New Mexico along with an oil refinery in Big Spring, Texas.

The FINA brand appeared on gasoline and other petroleum products at Panhandle stations in 1958, with the service stations rebranded as FINA in 1959 and service stations acquired through purchase of Cosden and other companies also converted to the FINA brand. In 1961, FINA introduced its Pink Air promotional campaign noting that while FINA gasolines were loaded with all the same ingredients that made their fuels "Exactly As Good As The Best" adding that only at FINA stations could motorists get "Pink Air" for their tires to keep them from rotting out. In its "Pink Air" ads, Fina (then undergoing a major expansion of its marketing territory which encompassed the Mid-Continent region from Texas to Minnesota) noted that Pink Air was arriving at new FINA stations as fast as they could be opened and set a goal of having Pink Air in all of its stations by May of 1966 - five years later.

In 1966, when "Pink Air" finally arrived at every FINA station, FINA replaced that campaign with a new one regarding an ingredient in its gasoline called "PFLASH." At a time when other US oil companies were promoting their gasoline products with campaigns such as Exxon/Esso's "Put A Tiger in Your Tank!",. Shell's "Platformate" additive that improved gas mileage, Texaco's invitation to "Trust Your Car to the Man Who Wears The Star" and Mobil's "Detergent gasoline"; ""PFLASH", was promoted as an ingredient in FINA gasoline that would improve driving pleasure by "turning red lights green," "smoothing out rough roads," "improving the food at roadside restaurants" and "making you feel less sorry you ever got a driver's license." FINA stations even offered free "Pflash" bumper stickers to motorists who pulled in for gasoline purchases.

In 1973, American Petrofina expanded its marketing area to include Florida, Georgia and several other Southeastern states following the purchase of BP's marketing assets including service stations, terminals and jobber contracts, converting them to the FINA brand. Another expansion of FINA's marketing operations came in 1984, when American Petrofina purchased several thousand service stations from Oklahoma-based Champlin Refining Company following that firm's closing of its Enid, Oklahoma refinery. The Champlin assets were rebranded as FINA stations in several Mid-Continent states including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa among others.

[edit] US FINA assets now owned by ALON USA

Since the Total-Petrofina merger in 1999, all of FINA's former US refining and marketing assets have been owned by Texas-based ALON USA. ALON assets include the former FINA refinery at Big Spring, Texas and the FINA brand name. ALON supplies gasoline and other petroleum products to 1,200 FINA stations directly and through distributors in seven Southwestern states including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona and the southern portion of Colorado. ALON also owns Southwest Convenience Stores, LLC, which is the largest franchiser of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States. Southwest owns and operates 160 7-Eleven stores in West Texas and New Mexico, each of which sell FINA gasoline.