Western States Oil Company

About Us

Western States Oil Company is a privately held, family-owned lubricants and fuels distribution business founded in San Jose, California by Thomas A. Lopes in July 1956. After graduating from San Jose State College in 1949, Tom worked for Standard Oil of California for two years driving a tank truck between San Jose and Redwood City, learning many facets of the oil distribution business.

In 1951 Tom decided to go to work for his father, Frank Lopes, who was a distributor for Signal Oil and Gas Company, a large independent Oil company based in Los Angeles, California. During this period Signal Oil Company was acquired by EXXON and it didn’t take long for Tom to figure out the only way he could get ahead in this business was to work for himself so he started his own company to become truly independent. Funny as it may seem, Tom hired his father away from Signal Oil and founded Western States Oil Company with two employees and a 900-gallon tank truck. The new company grew quickly as Tom started supplying some of the largest contractors and trucking companies that were enjoying the rapid growth of the Santa Clara Valley after the war. Due to increased demand for large deliveries of bulk fuel, in 1960 Tom started Spartan Tank Lines to handle full truck and trailer quantities of gasoline and diesel fuel.

In 1984 Tom’s sons, Steve and Jeff Lopes, joined the company to carry on the growth of the business and started by adding a bulk oil tank system to help them aggressively market lube oils, and hydraulic fluids.