History
On March 1, 2021, Van De Pol Petroleum, headquartered in Stockton, CA, purchased the businesses and locations of Tesei Petroleum and Madera Propane. The sale enabled Gail Tesei’s retirement while entrusting his customers and employees to a Company with shared business values, ethics, and culture.
Since the days of ‘Cook and Tesei’, Tesei Petroleum had grown for over 45 years – from a small one-room office to a corporation with three bulk plants, six cardlocks, three Shell stations and more than sixty employees. Becoming part of the Van De Pol family continues the Tesei family’s legacy, history and commitment to supplying the needs of Agriculture & Business in the San Joaquin Valley. Here is the History of Tesei Petroleum.
History of Tesei Petroleum
After returning from his service in WWII, Lawrence Tesei went to work for Seaside Oil Company delivering petroleum products to the farming community in Madera County. He dedicated six years of service to them before being hired at Gail Stewart Co., distributing Mobil Oil products and Petrolane Gas Service propane.
1969 After Mr. Stewart’s departure from the fuel business; Lawrence and his co-worker Howard Cook were offered the consignee contracts for Mobil Oil Company and Petrolane Gas Service. Together they formed their partnership – Cook and Tesei.
1975 Gail Tesei, Lawrence’s son, joins the company as a delivery driver.
1979 Gail purchases half of the Company from Howard Cook.
October 1, 1980 The business was incorporated as Tesei Petroleum, Inc. Howard stays on until his retirement on June 17, 1981.
1982 The Company purchases a large area of land between the Gateway off-ramp and Highway 99. Rathmann Oil Company and Tesei Petroleum form a partnership to build the first cardlock in Madera on the property.
1983 Tesei purchases Madera Propane and begins distributing propane, doubling the previous company’s propane business volume in 6 months.
1985 The Company purchases its first fuel truck, severing ties with Mobil Oil, and Tesei Petroleum becomes a fully independent fuel distributor.
1987 The Company renovates the existing office & warehouse building, moves into the location and Tesei Petroleum operates entirely out of its new (and current) location.
1988 Tesei joins the Commercial Fueling Network (CFN) after upgrading the Madera Gateway cardlock which increased traffic and cardlock volumes.
1992 Tesei Petroleum purchases the local Shell distributor, acquiring the Shell brand and begins supplying local Shell stations. The additional acquisition of a Chowchilla-based fuel distributor continued business growth.
1995 When Shell chooses to offer its corporate-owned service stations for sale, Tesei Petroleum purchases two locations, one in Merced and the other in Los Banos.
1998 Tesei purchases land just off Highway 99 in Chowchilla (Robertson Blvd & Chowchilla Ave.) and builds a new Shell Station, a CFN cardlock, and warehouse.
2000 The property adjacent to the Company’s main Madera plant became available, and a new, expanded cardlock was built for diesel customers.
2001 With requests for alternative fuels increasing, Tesei Petroleum adds on-demand CNG at the Madera CFN cardlock as one of the first retail CNG stations in the Central Valley.
2007 Tesei Petroleum takes over operation of R Street Shell in Merced CA.
May 2009 The Company purchases its third retail location close to its main office at the intersection of Gateway and Olive. Gateway Valero was later converted to the Shell brand.
2011 Tesei makes its largest acquisition by purchasing Bartlett Petroleum in Merced. The purchase includes the Merced office/bulk plant, three cardlocks and all of Bartlett’s employees are retained.
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