76 Lubricants Gets Its Oil From a Competitor--Exxon

It’s not all cutthroat competition out there.

76 Lubricants Co. says it now gets its basic motor oil supply from Exxon Corp.

When it was owned by Unocal, the Costa Mesa-based lubricants company got its raw materials from Unocal refineries.

But New Jersey refinery and convenience store operator Tosco Corp. acquired the refineries as part of its $2-billion purchase of Unocal 76 Products Co. and has changed the mix of things being refined. It no longer is producing the kind of oil used to blend various lubricants.

Still, while the basic motor oil now comes from Exxon, it will be marketed as Unocal--that’s because the company blends in its own additives to produce oil formulated to Unocal specifications.

It’s kind of like chocolate--one cocoa plantation might send beans to both Sees and Godiva--but while the raw material is the same, the end products are very different. The additives and blending secrets at the factory make the difference.

While Unocal 76 Products Co. is gone, the name lives on with Tosco, and the company says it will keep about 160 employees at the former Unocal Products headquarters in Costa Mesa: 90 in a marketing division to help oversee the Unocal 76 service station network in the area and 70 in its Tosco Distribution unit, which includes 76 Lubricants Co.