Global Partners LP owns, controls or has access to a large terminal network of refined petroleum products and renewable fuels—with connectivity to strategic rail, pipeline and marine assets—spanning from Maine to Florida and into the U.S. Gulf States.
The company is one of the largest independent owners, suppliers, and operators of gasoline stations and convenience stores, primarily in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvani...
Global Partners LP owns, controls or has access to a large terminal network of refined petroleum products and renewable fuels—with connectivity to strategic rail, pipeline and marine assets—spanning from Maine to Florida and into the U.S. Gulf States.
The company is one of the largest independent owners, suppliers, and operators of gasoline stations and convenience stores, primarily in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (collectively, the ‘Northeast’), and Maryland and Virginia. As of December 31, 2024, the company had a portfolio of 1,584 owned, leased, and/or supplied gasoline stations, including 300 directly operated convenience stores, primarily in the Northeast, as well as 64 gasoline stations located in Texas that are operated by the company’s joint venture, Spring Partners Retail LLC (‘SPR’). The company is also one of the largest distributors of gasoline, distillates, residual oil, and renewable fuels to wholesalers, retailers, and commercial customers in the New England states and New York. It engages in the purchasing, selling, gathering, blending, storing, and logistics of transporting petroleum and related products, including gasoline and gasoline blendstocks (such as ethanol), distillates (such as home heating oil, diesel, and kerosene), residual oil, renewable fuels, crude oil, and propane, and in the transportation of petroleum products and renewable fuels by rail from the mid-continent region of the United States and Canada.
The company purchases refined petroleum products, gasoline blendstocks, renewable fuels, and crude oil primarily from domestic and foreign refiners, ethanol producers, crude oil producers, major and independent oil companies, and trading companies. It operates its businesses under three segments: Wholesale, Gasoline Distribution and Station Operations (‘GDSO’), and Commercial.
Global GP LLC, the company’s general partner, manages its operations and activities and employs its officers and substantially all of its personnel, except for most of the gasoline station and convenience store employees who are employed by its wholly owned subsidiary, Global Montello Group Corp. (‘GMG’), and for substantially all of the employees who primarily or exclusively provide services to SPR, who are employed by SPR Operator LLC, also a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.
2024 Events
Redemption of Series A Preferred Units—On April 15, 2024, the company redeemed all of its outstanding Series A Fixed-to-Floating Rate Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Units (the ‘Series A Preferred Units’) distribution for the period from February 15, 2024, through April 14, 2024.
Acquisitions of Terminals from Gulf Oil and ExxonMobil Oil Corporation—On April 9, 2024, the company acquired four refined-product terminals from Gulf Oil Limited Partnership (‘Gulf Oil’) which are located in Chelsea, MA, New Haven, CT, Linden, NJ, and Woodbury, NJ, pursuant to a purchase agreement initially entered into on December 15, 2022, and subsequently amended and restated on February 23, 2024. On November 1, 2024, the company acquired one liquid energy terminal in East Providence, Rhode Island from ExxonMobil Oil Corporation (‘ExxonMobil’).
Operating Segments
The company operates its businesses under three segments: Wholesale, GDSO, and Commercial.
Wholesale
In the company’s Wholesale segment, it engages in the logistics of selling, gathering, blending, storing, and transporting refined petroleum products, gasoline blendstocks, renewable fuels, crude oil, and propane. It transports these products by railcars, barges, trucks, and/or pipelines pursuant to spot or long-term contracts. The company sells home heating oil, branded and unbranded gasoline, and gasoline blendstocks, diesel, kerosene, and residual oil to retail and wholesale distributors. Generally, customers use their own vehicles or contract carriers to take delivery of the gasoline, distillates, and propane at bulk terminals and inland storage facilities that the company owns or controls, or at which it has throughput or exchange arrangements. Ethanol is shipped primarily by rail and by barge.
Gasoline Distribution and Station Operations
In the company’s GDSO segment, gasoline distribution includes sales of branded and unbranded gasoline to gasoline station operators and sub-jobbers. Station operations include convenience store and prepared food sales, rental income from gasoline stations leased to dealers, from commissioned agents, and from co-branding arrangements, and sundries (such as car wash sales and lottery and ATM commissions).
Commercial
In the company’s Commercial segment, it includes sales and deliveries to end-user customers in the public sector and to large commercial and industrial end users of unbranded gasoline, home heating oil, diesel, kerosene, residual oil, and bunker fuel. In the case of public sector commercial and industrial end-user customers, the company sells products primarily either through a competitive bidding process or through contracts of various terms. It responds to publicly issued requests for product proposals and quotes. The company generally arranges for the delivery of the product to the customer’s designated location. The company’s Commercial segment also includes sales of custom blended fuels delivered by barges or from a terminal dock to ships through bunkering activity.
Products
Gasoline: The company sells substantially all grades of branded and unbranded gasoline, and it sells gasoline blendstocks, such as ethanol, that comply with seasonal and geographical requirements in the areas in which it markets.
Distillates: Distillates are primarily divided into home heating oil, diesel, and kerosene. In 2024, sales of diesel, home heating oil, and kerosene accounted for approximately 74%, 25%, and 1%, respectively, of the company’s total volume of distillates sold. The distillates sold are used primarily for fuel for trucks and off-road construction equipment, and for space heating of residential and commercial buildings.
The company sells generic home heating oil and Heating Oil Plus, the company’s proprietary premium branded heating oil that is electronically blended at the delivery facility, to wholesale distributors and retailers. In addition, it sells the additive used to create Heating Oil Plus to some wholesale distributors, makes injection systems available to them, and provides technical support to assist them with blending. The company also educates the sales force of its customers to better prepare them for marketing its products to their customers.
The company has a fixed price sales program that it markets primarily to wholesale distributors and retailers which uses the New York Mercantile Exchange (‘NYMEX’) heating oil contract as the pricing benchmark and as the vehicle to manage the commodity risk. In 2024, approximately 30% of the company’s home heating oil volume was sold using forward fixed price contracts. A forward fixed price contract requires the customer to purchase a specific volume at a specific price during a specific period. The remaining home heating oil volume was sold on either a posted price or a price based on various indices which, in both instances, reflect current market conditions.
The company sells generic diesel and Diesel One, its proprietary premium diesel fuel product. It offers marketing and technical support for those customers who purchase Diesel One.
Residual Oil: The company sells residual oil to industrial, commercial, and marine customers. It specially blends the product for users in accordance with their individual power specifications and for marine transport.
Crude Oil: The company engages in the purchasing, selling, storing, and logistics of transporting domestic and Canadian crude oil and other products via pipeline, rail, and barge from the mid-continent region of the United States and Canada for distribution to refiners and other customers.
Convenience Store Items and Sundries: The company sells a broad selection of food, beverages, snacks, grocery, and non-food merchandise at its convenience store locations and generates sundry sales, such as car wash sales and lottery and ATM commissions, at its convenience store locations.
Assets
Terminals
As of December 31, 2024, the company owned, leased, or maintained dedicated storage facilities at 54 bulk terminals throughout the United States, each with the capacity to receive petroleum products via marine vessel, pipeline, and/or rail, with a collective storage capacity of approximately 22.0 million barrels. Some of the company’s storage tankage is versatile, allowing it to switch tankage from one product to another. The company also maintains commingled storage at numerous smaller inland terminals owned and operated by third parties.
The company’s bulk terminals located in New York, Vermont, Oregon, Georgia, and Florida include rail facilities capable of handling refined and renewable products. In North Dakota, the company owns two bulk terminals with rail facilities permitted to receive, store, or distribute crude oil. In Albany, New York, the company also has an additional rail-fed storage terminal capable of handling propane.
Gasoline Stations
As of December 31, 2024, the company had a portfolio of 1,584 owned, leased, and/or supplied gasoline stations, including 300 directly operated convenience stores, primarily in the Northeast, as well as 64 gasoline stations located in Texas that are operated by the company’s joint venture, SPR.
At the company’s company-operated stores, it operates the gasoline stations and convenience stores with its employees, and it sets the retail price of gasoline at the station.
Seasonality
Travel and recreational activities are typically higher in these months in the geographic areas in which the company operates, increasing the demand for gasoline. Therefore, the company’s volumes in gasoline are typically higher in the second and third quarters of the calendar year (year ended December 31, 2024). As demand for some of the company’s refined petroleum products, specifically home heating oil and residual oil for space heating purposes, is generally greater during the winter months, heating oil and residual oil volumes are generally higher during the first and fourth quarters of the calendar year.
Title to Properties, Permits, and Licenses
The name GLOBAL, the company’s Global logos, and the name Global Petroleum Corp. are its trademarks. In addition, the company has trademarks for its premium fuels and additives: Heating Oil Plus and the Heating Oil Plus logo, SubZero and the SubZero logo, Diesel One and the Diesel One logo, Diesel 1, the Diesel 1 logo, the tagline Legacy.Technology.Performance., GlobalGlo, and GlobalGlo Low Carbon Solutions. The company’s Global online customer portal for buying, bidding, and contract management is operated under the name GlobalCONNECT.
The company also owns registrations and uses the following trademarks, among others, for its convenience store business: A Fresh Take on Everything, Alltown, Alltown Fresh & logo, Fresh with Benefits, Alltown Insiders, Alltown Market, Alltown Neighborhood Perks, Centre St. Kitchen, Fast Freddie’s, Mr. Mike’s, Deli Joe’s, Diamond Fuels, Xtra Mart & logo, XtraCafe, HF Honey Farms & logo, Wheels & logo. The company also owns the trademark Jiffy Mart & logo. The company also has rights to use O’Connell’s Convenience Plus, T-Bird, Miller’s Mart, and related marks.
Regulation
The company’s operations generate a variety of wastes, including some hazardous wastes that are subject to the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended (‘RCRA’), and comparable state laws. The company’s operations also generate solid wastes which are regulated under state law or the less stringent solid waste requirements of the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act.
The company follows the American Petroleum Institute’s inspection, maintenance, and repair standard applicable to its above-ground storage tanks.
The company is required to make financial expenditures to comply with regulations governing underground storage tanks (‘USTs’) which store gasoline or other regulated substances adopted by federal, state, and municipal regulatory agencies.
The company is subject to regulations promulgated under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (and subsequent amendments) and administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation (‘DOT’) under the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the United States Coast Guard, and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (‘PHMSA’).
The company is subject to the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (‘OSHA’) and comparable state statutes that regulate the protection of the health and safety of workers.
Some of the company’s facilities and operations are also subject to the EPA’s Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases rule, and any further regulation may increase the company’s operational costs.
History
Global Partners LP was founded in 2005. The company was incorporated under Delaware law in 2005.