Past Course Graduates

Eby Oil Inc
Eddins-Walcher Co.
Edward C. Levy Company
Evergreen Transportation
Fabulous Freddy’s
Farmers Cooperative Co.
FedExFreight
Fleet Fuel, LLC
Fleet Morris Petroleum
Flying J Inc.
Fuelquest
Fuel Managers
Fuel Masters
Gasforal, LLC
Get N Go, Inc.
Glenn Dist. Inc.
Goodin Fuels
Gromark Hager Oil Company
Hedge Solutions
Hess Corporation
High Plains Bioenergy
HRI, Inc.
Huey's Mart
Independence Biofuels
International Lease Consultants
InterState Oil Co.
Jebro
Keeman Petroleum Co.
Kendrick Oil Co.
Kewa Gas Limited
Key Energy
Kickapoo Casino
Knight Transportation
Kroger Company
Kwik Pik Food Stores
Lafarge North America
Leavesley Chevron
Leonard’s Services
Little Field Oil Company
Los Angeles County Internal Services Dept.
LTBB of Odawa Indians
Lyondell Chemical
Marc Nelson Oil Products, Inc.
Maverick Energy Consulting
McIntyre Circle Enterprises, Inc.
Memco Barge Line
Michigan Petroleum Technologies
Mid West Terminal
Motiva/Shell
Musket Corporation
NACS
National Energy Systems Company
Natural Resources Canada
Nordic Energy Services LLC
Northland Foods
North Star Gas LLC
Nouria Energy Corporation
O-Rourke Petroleum
P A S of Tallahasse, Inc.
Panhandle Co-op
Performance Advisors, LLC
Petr-All Petroleum Corp.
Petro Marine Services
Petroleum Traders
Petroplus
PetroSouth
PFC Energy
Phelps Dodge Morenci
Poma Distributing
Portland General Electric Company
Pour Boy Oil
Pride Convenience
Publix Supermarkets
Quality Fuels, Inc.
Quick Chek
Rackham Services Corp.
RE Powell
Red Rock Distributing Co.
Reisner Distributor, Inc.
Rothsay
RTA Transit Services
Ryder FCS
SADO Gas Sales Inc.

 

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.

Continental Breakfast

 

9:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Review of Yesterday’s Lesson/ What You’ll Learn Today

 

Basic Buying Concepts Workshop:
Creating and Implementing a Successful Fuel Buying Plan

For the next four sessions, we will conduct two case studies that will focus intensely on creating a fuel buying plan for two very different fuel buyers – Scott Howard, Inc., a manufacturing company that purchases approximately 20 million gallons of fuel annually, and Skyline, Inc., a jobber that sells more than 300 million gallons per year.

 

Both companies face a multitude of challenges. For Scott Howard, the biggest challenge is to create a basic buying program that will keep trucks moving and not bust its fuel budget in this era of extreme volatility. For Skyline, the challenge is to leverage the large amounts of fuel that it purchases through various buying methods – branded, unbranded, spot, and some basic hedging – in order to control its huge fuel costs.

 

10:00 – 10:45 a.m.

Part One: Choosing a Supplier

Here we take step one – choosing a supplier. You’ll learn:

• How to choose which rack market(s) you need to designate for supply.
• What FOB means.
• Alternate rack supply points.
• How to contact a supplier – where you get contact names and how you know that you’re talking to the right person.
• Is cheaper better?
• How to take advantage of ‘arbs’ between the markets.
• What your negotiating strengths and weaknesses are.

 

10:45 – 11:30 a.m.

Part Two: Understanding and Choosing a Rack Benchmark

Now that Scott Howard, Inc. has chosen a supplier(s), it’s time to decide on a buying strategy based on using a rack benchmark. The choices of which benchmark to use are numerous, and a bad decision can have very serious ramifications for the company’s fuel budget. Here you’ll learn:

• How to use historical data strips to compare benchmark options.
• What benchmark options are available and if they apply to all fuels.
• The major differences between morning vs. closing and calendar day benchmarks; and daily vs. weekly.
• How floaters and data strips work. Branded vs. unbranded benchmarks. How to handle disputes.

 

11:30 – 11:45 a.m.

Refreshment Break

 

11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Part Three: Understanding Spot Benchmarks

Both of our companies need to consider adding spot/bulk purchases to their fuel buying portfolios. However, spot buying is very complicated. Here you’ll learn:

• How to buy rack with a ‘spot’ benchmark.
• When you should and shouldn’t buy spot bbls.
• What spot market you need to buy from.
• The difference between buying from majors, traders and brokers.
• What the risks are and what you should ask when you buy.
• What you need to know about pipelines and storage to purchase spot bbls effectively.
• Date of lifting vs. three- and five-day running averages.

 

12:30 – 1:45 p.m.

Networking Luncheon

 

1:45 – 2:30 p.m.

Part Four: A Fuel Buying Scorecard

We’ll take an in-depth look at how end-users purchase fuel differently than jobbers and how those differences dramatically affect fuel buying strategies.

 

2:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Rack Supply Contracts – What You Need to Know

One of the most critical parts of any fuel buying plan is having a contract that works for you and your supplier. There are many key things that you need to be aware of in negotiating a supply contract. You’ll learn the key do’s and don’ts involved in creating and executing supply contracts and what you need to know both as a buyer AND a seller/reseller.

 

3:30 p.m.

Cocktails with the Instructors