Sinclair Oil to bow out of retail

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. oil corporation Sinclair said it would exit the retail gasoline business, by early 2010 with the sale of its final 29 gas stations.

The company "already sold approximately 60 locations to and through our jobber network," Sinclair senior vice president of marketing and supply told The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman.

Vance McSpadden, executive director of the Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, said Sinclair's 70-year-old logo, the green brontosaurus, was not going to become extinct.

"We're still going to see the dinosaur. For right now, it's not going to be any different than it always has been," he said.

The brand is still available through stores the company does not own. Sinclair currently distributes to 2,600 company and distributor operated outlets, the firm's Web site says.

The gas stations up for grabs in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska and Oklahoma, will be sold through either a 10-year Sinclair brand and fuel agreement, without a fuel agreement or for a separate use with a restriction on petroleum sales, the newspaper said.