Coffee’s flowing at BP; fuel’s on hold

MARENGO — The coffee still is brewing at Dan Bine’s BP on Highway 6, but customers will have to gas up elsewhere for a couple more weeks.

Faced with the state’s mandate to sell E15 gasoline, Bine is installing a fourth tank so he can continue to sell diesel fuel.

Allen Mumby, his wife, Mary Ann, Ron Shaull and Charlie Johnson drank coffee and visited with Bine as usual Thursday. They’ve been meeting at Bine’s for coffee every day since about 2004, Mary Ann said.

But they don’t usually see construction out the front window as they have this week. “We’re ‘supervising’ today,” Allen said from a booth by the front window.

Bine opened his gas station in February of 1999, initially as an Ampride station, and most recently contracting with BP. “We switched to BP because they had a lot better reward program for the customers,” Bine said.

Bine put in new tanks six or seven years ago when he changed to BP, he said, but with the E15 mandate, he’s adding a fourth tank and updating lines and pumps.

Bine will sell four products when he reopens his pumps: 87 (which is 10% ethanol), E15, 91 premium (which has no alcohol) and diesel. Right now E15 is about 10 cents cheaper than regular, said Bine.

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“It’s a good upgrade, because we’re 24 years old,” said the BP owner. “It’s an infrastructure change.” The product – except for the addition of E15 – remains the same, he said.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed House File 2128, known as the Biofuels Bill, in May of 2022. The bill was a top priority for the governor and received strong, bipartisan support, according to a press release from her office.

The bill requires that retail dealers advertise and sell E15 gasoline.

With only three tanks, Bine would have had to discontinue supplying diesel, so he added a fourth tank. “I’m trying to give everyone the product they need,” he said.

Seneca Companies began work on the project Monday, Aug. 14, removing concrete, setting the new tank set and running lines.

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Seneca takes on construction projects all over Iowa and in Illinois, workers at the site said. The company provides other types of construction as well but has been installing gas tanks across the state for a few months.

“The weather’s been cooperating,” said Bine. “So far everything’s going well. I’m going to be really happy to get it done.”

Bine’s BP should be back in the fuel business the first full week in September.