Moeder Oil Cranks Up Volume in Bulk Fuel Sales

Signature Signs - Moeder Oil's sign is prominently displayed outside of the businesses main facility, along with Citgo and Texaco signs. There has been a bulk fuel business at the 2302 Railroad Ave. location since 1931. The facility has been Moeder Oil since 1981. Some of the storage and buildings were updated in the late 1980s after a fire leveled the eastern part of the facility in 1988.

In oil and gas boomtowns such as Great Bend, a large number of companies store and distribute propane. Just as many handle gas and diesel, and others stock and deliver lubricants. Few bulk fuel companies, however, store, haul and deliver all of those derivative-of-crude-oil products. Moeder Oil, 2302 Railroad Ave., does it all and in high volume.

"As far as the number of customers that we deliver to with all products, there's about 2,500," said Moeder Oil general manger Tom Ney.

During its last fiscal year, which ended in March, Moeder Oil sold 4.5 million gallons of diesel fuel, 2.6 million gallons of propane, 900,000 gallons of gasoline, and 175,000 gallons of oil lubricants.

Bobtail Hauler - Pictured is a Moeder Oil Bobtail delivery truck. Moeder Oil Company has five Bobtails used to haul gasoline and diesel fuel. It has six Bobtails that haul propane. Additionally, Moeder has two pick-ups that deliver lubricants and five support vehicles: a winch truck, back-up propane truck and service pick-ups.

"The advantage to us is that the propane business is the busiest in the winter time when the gasoline and diesel fuel business slows down during that same time," explained Ney. "Spring rolls around and we're finishing up with the propane service just as the gasoline and diesel fuel business takes off. All of those guys that have been busy hauling propane all winter long, now head to the fuel trucks and haul fuel. That timing for product sales works out well for our business."

All Moeder drivers are cross trained to haul everything the company delivers "because we get a myriad of different types of orders here in a hurry and the guy who comes back from a delivery first takes what's next," explained Ney.

Big Rig - A Moeder Oil rig sits in the parking lot at the company's home office. Moeder Oil has two semi-tractor trailers that haul gas and diesel from the refinery, either into its home facility or directly to the end user. The company is looking to add another semi to haul propane. Right now it outsources a rig to haul the propane from the supply points to its various bulk plants.

Ney said sales in all products have steadily increased since the last quarter of 2002. Some of that increase is due to the resurgence of a robust oil economy, but much of Moeder's extra business has come from several acquisitions of other bulk fuel companies the last three years. As an example of that increase, Ney points to the summer of 2002 when his company made 15 trips to drilling rigs that it serviced. In January the company made 55 trips to drilling rigs, a 267 percent increase in service demand for the drilling rigs.

"It didn't go from 15 to 55 overnight, but it just gradually increased over that period of time," said Ney. "I can safely say that our volumes in every category have increased annually for the last seven or eight years. Last fiscal year's numbers are at an all time high."

To keep up with demand, Moeder anticipates expanding its service area, adding another semi-trailer truck, and hiring another qualified driver to haul hazardous material and propane.

Ninety percent of Moeder's business is delivering products to farm, oil field and industrial sectors of central and western Kansas. Moeder serves a 100-mile radius surrounding Great Bend with gasoline and diesel fuel and propane. The company also serves western Kansas from its Liberal satellite office, primarily delivering fuel to drilling rigs.

Bulk Storage - Storage tanks at Moeder Oil Company's main facility are shown in this photo. About 95 percent of the company's products are delivered through the bulk plant. About 40,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 25,000 gallons of gasoline, and about 9,000 gallons of solvent products can be stored at the main facility. At Moeder's west-side facility it can store another 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 10,000 gallons of gasoline. The west Great Bend facility is also where Moeder Oil stores about 27,000 gallons of oil. Another 10,000 gallons of oil, already packaged in either drums or buckets or cases, are typically also stored there. For propane storage, Moeder has 24,000 gallons of storage in Great Bend; 24,000 gallons in St. John; 36,000 gallons in Kinsley; 18,000 in Jetmore; 38,000 in Rush Center; 48,000 in Russell; 36,000 in Ellsworth; and 18,000 in Yocemento (west of Hays).

Besides operation of two bulk plants in Great Bend where fuel is stored, Moeder has a satellite facility in Liberal and another in Hays. It also has eight bulk plants where propane is stored at in Ellis, Russell, Ellsworth, Barton, Rush, Stafford, Edwards and Hodgeman counties. Some of Moeder Oil's 15 full time employees live in those other counties and work out of the bulk plants in their respective areas.

"Those guys are strictly propane employees," said Ney. "They have a Bobtail delivery pickup and a service truck at their facility. They work out of their homes with the exception of one employee in Ellis who operates the facility in Hays that sells propane accessories and fills propane bottles."

Besides industry service, Moeder delivers propane to residences homes in the country. It also services 325 cardtrol accounts at its on-site fuel pumps where over-the-road truckers and residences alike opt for the convenience of 24-hour accessible gas and diesel fuel.

Two years ago, Moeder became only the sixth refueling station in the state to offer E85 ethanol. Auto manufactures are designing vehicles to run on flex fuels, so now more vehicle models can operate on conventional gasoline or ethanol and there are now 16 stations that offer the blend. Likewise, Moeder offers a biodiesel blend of soybean oil and diesel fuel that is a clean-burning fuel alternative for use in diesel engines.

Payless Pump - Moeder customers can use the fuel pumps any time, regardless of whether the business is open. The cardtrol system keeps track of purchases and customers are billed monthly for usage. Truckers especially utilize the pumps, because they are operating all hours of the night, said Ney. During business hours, there's free soda and coffee for anybody who fuels up at Moeder Oil. In the background at the pump is a sign for E85 ethanol fuel. "Sales for E85 have been slow, but it's picking up," said Ney. "It started out slow because a vehicle has to be built specifically to handle that type of fuel. That's starting to happen more frequently now."

Ney said there has been little change in the industry since he started with Moeder as a driver 20 years ago. But regulations in the bulk fuel industry have changed drastically requiring far more compliance account for fuels and oil products sold. Complying with regulations from the EPA, KDHE, Kansas State Fire Marshall's Office, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, KDOT, and even the IRS have created paperwork overload nowadays. But Ney said the most stringent inspections come from Moeder Oil's insurance company, conducting three or four inspections a year.

All the regulations require detailed record keeping of purchases and sales and those records are mostly kept by Ney and two office assistants in the Great Bend office that also handle all billing and bookkeeping for the business.

"Even with all the changes in regulations, how we do things as far delivering and taking care of our customers isn't much different then when I started here in 1987," said Ney. "I do feel that right now we are fully staffed with what I consider to be the best crew we've ever had."