Keeping oil and ag service efficient

By Violer Spader, Staff Writer

June 02, 2008 11:45 am

— Since 1967, Horne Oil Company has been servicing Enid area oil and agriculture industries by supplying them with fuel and lubricants.
Robert Sumner, president and co-owner of Horne Oil, joined the company in 1983, when he and a partner purchased the business from founder Roy Horne. In 1996, Sumner bought out his partner, and in 2005, brought Ronnie Black on board. Sumner, his wife Charlotte, and Black are co-owners of Horne Oil Company.
“We provide a quality product and outstanding service,” Sumner said. “That’s what we’ve built our business on.”
That business involves selling and transporting fuel and lubricants, like motor oil and hydraulic oil, to oil fields, agricultural industries, farmers and natural gas processing plants. These products are used to maintain and run equipment in each field.
“We provide an essential and necessary service,” Sumner said.
One of the biggest misconceptions about oil supply companies, Sumner said, is the higher fuel prices go, the higher their profits become.
“That’s not true,” he said. “Our operating costs go up just like everybody else’s.”
Their profit from fuel sales is based on cents-per-gallon, as opposed to a percentage of the sale. That’s fairly standard among oil suppliers, according to Sumner.
Operating capital is the biggest problem facing the company right now, he said.
But when it comes to location, Horne Oil Company is right where it needs to be to best serve its customers.
“We’re right in the heart of it,” Sumner said of the company’s proximity to oil fields. “I feel like we’re in a good area.”
Their service area is approximately a 100-mile radius around Enid.
Horne Oil stocks both bulk and packaged lubricants. Bulk lubricants can be delivered to customers and pumped into containers at the site. Packaged lubricants come in a variety of sizes, from 55-gallon drums to one quart pails.
“We can supply what a customer needs,” Sumner said.
Horne Oil Company carries many brands of fuel — Conoco and Citgo being two of the most recognizable.
The oil supplier is located at 212 S. 42nd., in Enid.

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