ExxonMobil could have trouble selling gas stations

— -- ExxonMobil, the highest-profit company in the world in recent times, is selling its 2,220 company-owned U.S. gasoline stations, in part because it's gotten so hard to make money selling gas and diesel fuel to consumers.

Whether distributors will queue up to pay hefty prices to buy the Exxon and Mobil sites is uncertain, however. A report Thursday by the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), a consultant, noted that other big oil companies, such as Shell and BP, already have sold their stations to distributors. As a result, the OPIS report speculated, there might be fewer petroleum distributors willing or financially able to buy Exxon and Mobil sites.

It wants to unload them as petroleum retailing "continues to be challenging, with reduced (profit) margins and significant competitive growth," Nair said.

A recent OPIS analysis showed that as gasoline prices have shot up, retailers were earning an average 3 cents a gallon of gasoline sold, vs. the typical 13 cents.

Latest government data, based on April numbers, show a bleaker picture: about 2 cents a gallon.

Low profits at a time of record-high prices might seem backward. It happens because gasoline retailing is so competitive — every station's prices are posted in huge numbers. Even as their wholesale prices rise with the jumps in crude oil prices, station operators are reluctant to be first on their corner to go up a penny.

A variety of petroleum marketing studies show drivers will do everything from risky turns across heavy traffic to driving miles out of their way to save a penny a gallon.