Gas Station Chain with Stores in California Closing 1,000 Stations

There has been a recent push, and it will continue to grow, to have drivers switch from gasoline-powered cars to EVs. The Advanced Clean Cars II regulation aims to have all new cars in California be zero-emission by 2035. But that change requires a lot of infrastructure work to handle charging millions of electric vehicles.

The largest oil production company in the United States recently announced plans to close 1,000 gas stations to help facilitate that change.

One of California's Biggest Gas Stations Closing 1,000 Stores

One of the largest gas station companies in the US is Shell, with over 12,000 stations. They are the only oil company with fuel stations in every state. Exxon Mobile has stations in 47 states and just under 12,000 locations.

But Shell is making plans that could upset that ranking over the next 2 years. In their Shell Energy Transition Strategy 2024, Shell has announced plans to divest (get rid of, sell, or exchange) 500 locations this year and another 500 in 2025.

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You can read the announcement on page 28 of their 60-page Report.

We are upgrading our retail network, with expanded electric vehicle charging and convenience offers, in response to changing customer needs. In total, we plan to divest around 500 Shell-owned sites (including joint ventures) a year in 2024 and 2025. We are growing our premium lubricants portfolio to supply key energy transition sectors such as transformer oils used for offshore wind parks, and cooling fluids to support the development of electric vehicle car batteries.

Shell isn’t the largest gasoline company in California, that honor goes to Chevron running 1,865 gas stations in the Golden State. Shell operates 1,151 gas stations in California, including 53 in LA, 43 in San Diego, and 27 in Sacramento, according to their website.

Shell Plans to Close 1,000 Stores. Will California Be Affected?

Shell hasn’t announced which stores will be closing or if they will actually close at all. The main reason they gave for the divesting of locations was to make space for EV (electric vehicle) charging stations. There are more than 105,000 public and shared private Electric Vehicle charging stations across California. Shell could have plans to use current gas locations and turn them into EV sites or sell certain locations and add EV chargers to existing gas station locations.

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