Published November 2000

Nelson Petroleum
buys Dennis

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

Two Snohomish County-based oil companies have merged with the recent Nelson Petroleum acquisition of Dennis Petroleum, a move that reflects similar global consolidations in the petroleum industry.

“In the oil industry, there’s significant squeezes taking place by the major oil companies,” said Paul Dennis, former owner of Dennis Petroleum, a distributor of petroleum products.

At the international level, the past few years have brought deals between British Petroleum and Amoco, Phillips Petroleum and Chevron, as well as Shell and Texaco. Subsequently, Dennis said, the major companies have changed their posture on the distributors, squeezing their ability to do business.

“So, we sold to the Nelsons because it’s a logical situation,” said Dennis, who will not continue with the company.

Mark Nelson, head of Nelson Petroleum, agreed, calling the acquisition a good fit.

“We had a lot of common market, a lot of common customers, even, so we were battling each other ... in a sense,” Nelson said, adding that Dennis Petroleum (based in Everett) was very strong in south Snohomish County, while Nelson (headquartered in Arlington) was strong in the north.

“Both Nelson Petroleum and Dennis Petroleum were very equivalent in size as far as number of people, amount of equipment and facilities,” said Nelson, declining to comment on the financial details of the sale and purchase.

The deal “doubled our size overnight,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out where it’s going to go.”

Personnel numbers were unaffected by the sale, as both staffs remained intact, Nelson said. The company now employs about 62 people.

The deal added two Everett sites, a facility in Arlington and a facility in Snohomish to Nelson Petroleum’s existing sites in Arlington, Mount Vernon, Darrington, Granite Falls and Everett.

Dennis Petroleum’s Everett sites were especially alluring, Nelson said, as Sound Transit is interested in Nelson Petroleum’s site off Pacific Avenue for the planned Everett Station project. Negotiations between Nelson Petroleum and Sound Transit are ongoing, he said.

“Not wanting to walk away from the business in Everett, this made a lot of sense,” Nelson said about the acquisition. “We didn’t have to acquire a brand new piece of property that wasn’t established.”

Along with personnel and facilities, the deal gives Nelson Petroleum a piece of the international market, through Dennis Petroleum’s PetroSorb division of oil-absorbing cleanup products.

“We sold products that were in that line, but not as well-established as PetroSorb. It didn’t have the marketing behind it,” Nelson said.

By the mid-1990s, Dennis Petroleum was selling its PetroSorb products to customers in Denmark, Poland, England, Germany and Spain. In 1998, the company landed accounts in Hong Kong and the Philippines. During that time, Dennis Petroleum also began shipping petroleum to Europe.

Nelson Petroleum has concentrated on delivering petroleum, lubricant and heating fuel to area consumers in the construction, timber and agriculture industries as well as local municipalities and school districts. The company, which has operated in the area since the late 1960s, plans to maintain the international market cultivated by Dennis Petroleum, but “how much we go and take it further than where it’s at, we’re not really sure right now,” Nelson said.

As for Dennis, he’s “still closing out the business” he sold in early June. After that, he’ll decide whether to jump into another venture.

“I’ve still got a lot of burn in my life. I just have to get this business closed,” the 56-year-old Dennis said.

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