Bulk Petroleum Corp., which supplies gasoline to more than 200 gas stations throughout the Midwest, has filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Bulk Petroleum is owned by Darshan Dhaliwal. Its estimated assets and liabilities range from $50 million to $100 million, according to its filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Bulk Petroleum buys gasoline from oil companies and then sells it to individual gas stations, according to the Journal Sentinel.
The newspaper also reported that several real estate holding companies affiliated with Bulk Petroleum also filed for Chapter 11 protection. The companies own gas stations in Wisconsin, Illinois and several other Midwestern states, which are then leased to individual operators.
Bulk Petroleum guaranteed the debts of those companies, a company attorney told the newspaper.
Bulk Petroleum was profitable in 2008, Dhaliwal said, but last year’s record-setting spike in oil prices made it more expensive for the company to buy gasoline and made it more difficult for gas station operators to pay for the gasoline they bought from Bulk Petroleum.
Bulk Petroleum’s largest unsecured creditors include oil companies Citgo, which is owed $4.96 million, and Marathon Ashland LLC, owed $3.46 million, the filing said.
“I’ve been in business 32 years, and I’ve made money every year except one,” Dhaliwal told the Journal Sentinel. “But we can’t get paid. We’re going to come out of (Chapter 11). We just need a little breathing time.”