$1.99 a gallon: Fun while it lasted at new, jam-packed Pemex gas station in Bakersfield

Robert Price
2 min read
0

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — No, it’s not 1984, even though the price per gallon, posted in bright red numbers on the 40-foot digital sign towering alongside Union Avenue, would suggest it might be.

$1.99? That’s pretty hard to beat.

That ridiculously low price was part of a promotion designed to draw attention to a new gas station — Pemex, the California affiliate of Petróleos Mexicanos, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex already has a few stations in California, including Delano, but this is the first in Bakersfield.

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Did the promotion work?

“Well, look at the long lines,” said Miguel Pulido, director of external affairs for Pemex. “They’re going around the block. I don’t know how far out they go.”

“We want to make a strong impression and we found, when we do, that people remember and it’s a good way to be introduced into a community.”

The promotion, which applied only to the price of regular gas, caused a few traffic issues, including a couple of boxed-in cars right at the pumps, but the promise of a good deal seemed to keep things even-keeled.

“I guess people haven’t seen these prices in a long time,” said Sandeep Grewal, a Bakersfield native who’s with Pemex Central California, “and it’s catching everybody’s eye.”

Like many gas stations these days, the adjacent mini-market has much more than gasoline and diesel on the menu. But gas at under $2 a gallon — that was the draw.

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“We are so happy,” said Mandeb Singh, who works in the trucking industry. “I just saw the $1.99 gas price. In this situation, people are suffering. I belong to trucking, so right now the trucking industry is bad, so everybody is looking for a cheap price.”

More Pemex stations are coming to Bakersfield and to the Central Valley. Company officials aren’t saying where or when, but they are confirming that this kind of promotional pricing will mark the occasion.

Expect prices to (ahem!) go up a little bit when these promotions end.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17.

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