Wilson gas to buy remaining 11 Esso stores in Halifax

Wilson Fuel Co. Ltd. will buy 11 Esso stations in the Halifax area, but it looks like customers won’t see any changes.

The sale was announced Tuesday. Imperial Oil Ltd., which owns Esso, is selling its remaining 497 Esso stores across the country.

The 11 in Nova Scotia, and nine stores purchased in Newfoundland, were the last in Atlantic Canada that weren’t already owned by Wilson Fuel.

A spokesman for Wilson Fuel says the gas stations will still be branded as Esso and will operate like all the other Essos.

Wilson Fuel is known for its cash and debit discounts, where customers can save either 2 or 3.5 cents per litre of gas, depending on the store’s location.

The new Wilson-owned Essos will not offer the same discount. The Esso Extra card can still be used at those stations.

Imperial says it decided to sell the stores after it evaluated its operating model in January 2015 for the remaining company-owned Esso stations.

The total deal for all 497 stations is worth $2.8 billion. Imperial would not disclose how much the deal with Wilson Fuel is worth.

According to the release, the deal should be completed by the end of this year.