While Valero’s gas stations can most frequently be found in Texas, where a lot of the oil in the U.S. comes from, its network stretches right across the country. However, it’s more than simply a retailer of gas and diesel. It’s also the world’s biggest independent oil refiner, with 15 refineries dotted throughout North America and Europe. The company can trace its roots back to 1980, when it was formed as the successor to a Houston-based natural gas pipeline company. It built its first oil refinery in Texas in 1984, and since then has acquired a string of rivals across the U.S. and beyond.

In the late ’90s, Valero separated its oil refining business from its gas pipeline business and launched the refining division as a public company, Valero Energy. It remains publicly owned today, with various institutional investors, ETFs, and mutual funds owning the bulk of the company’s shares.

The largest single institutional holder is Vanguard Group, which has a 12.59% stake in the company. BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors, and Charles Schwab Investment Management also own significant minority stakes. No one mutual fund or ETF holds as many shares as these institutional investors, but a series of Vanguard ETFs own small stakes, with the institution’s Total Stock Market ETF being the largest of the bunch.

The government of Norway also owns a minority stake in Valero via its Government Pension Fund Global, which was set up in 1990 to manage the profits generated through the country’s oil reserves. Around 12.5% of Valero’s shares are also owned by other public companies and retail investors.

Alongside its gas station network and its petroleum-based oil refineries, Valero also owns a dozen U.S.-based ethanol plants. Ethanol is a biofuel and is mixed into most modern gasoline blends. E10 fuel contains around 10% ethanol and is the most common blend to find at fuel pumps, but E15 and E85 is also available at some retailers. 

While there is plenty of evidence to show that ethanol isn’t good for older car engines, virtually all modern car engines are designed to work with ethanol-infused gasoline blends. Valero is the world’s second-largest producer of corn ethanol, and also the second largest producer of renewable diesel biofuel.

If that wasn’t enough, the company also makes sustainable aircraft fuel (SAF). It’s seen as a greener alternative to traditional jet fuel, and global airlines like Virgin Atlantic have started to adopt it in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint.

While the Valero brand is primarily used for the company’s U.S. gas station network, drivers in other parts of the world might have filled up at a Valero-owned gas station without knowing it. In Canada, some Valero gas stations operate under Ultramar branding, while in the U.K., Valero operates over 1,000 Texaco-branded gas stations.