The Finest Car Wash on Pleasant Valley Parkway in Providence now carries the Irving sign. The business has a seven-year contract with the Canadian oil company.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

Irving Oil Corp., an 80-year-old Canadian energy company that refines and sells gasoline, has established a presence in Rhode Island over the past two months, and is seeking to expand even further.

The company’s brand is now found on two gasoline stations –– one in Providence and the other in East Providence –– and more may follow soon.

“We intend to expand our dealer relationships in Rhode Island and are in active discussions to do so,” said Lars Trodson, U.S. manager of public affairs for Irving.

Irving signs were erected last week at Finest Car Wash on Pleasant Valley Parkway in Providence and in May at the Irving Food Mart on Taunton Avenue in East Providence.

Both stations, which remain privately owned by separate owners, have signed contracts with Irving to supply gasoline.

“You’ve got to be connected with a good, strong refiner and a company that’s going to be able to supply you in the future,” said Peter Montaquila Sr., owner of the newly re-branded Irving station on Pleasant Valley Parkway. “Irving is making that commitment.”

Montaquila, 66, has owned the station for 47 years and now is semiretired. He’s putting his son, Peter Jr., “in the throne.” Peter Jr. is 40.

The elder Montaquila said the station sells anywhere from 375,000 gallons to 435,000 gallons a month, making it one of the largest dealers in the state.

Over the years, the station has sold gasoline under many brands: Texaco, Arco, Sunoco and, most recently, Shell. His new contract with Irving runs for seven years. The price he pays for gasoline will fluctuate as the price of crude oil changes.

Montaquila said he thinks that signing with Irving will allow his station to sell gasoline 4 cents or 5 cents below the prices of his competitors.

“They are refiners, they have their own ships, they control their own distribution,” he said.

The other Irving station is the former Shell Food Mart on Taunton Avenue. That became the Irving Food Mart on March 1. The store is owned by Paul Sroczynski, who has operated the business there for 15 years, according to Irving.

“We’ve been very proud to operate this site as a longtime neighborhood store and it’s become a real fixture in the community,” Sroczynski said in a news release issued by Irving.

Irving has supply relationships with both the Motiva terminal in Providence and the ExxonMobil terminal in East Providence, said Trodson, the Irving spokesman. Fuel is delivered to Irving dealers in Rhode Island from either of these terminals, he said.

While Irving is just now arriving in Rhode Island, it has been a fixture in Canada and other Northeast states for decades. The company operates Canada’s largest refinery, in Saint John, New Brunswick, which is also the location of its headquarters. The refinery produces more than 300,000 barrels of fuel a day. Of that, Irving exports about 175,000 barrels of petroleum products to the Northeast United States, including 100,000 barrels of reformulated gasoline.

The company employs 7,000. Its U.S. headquarters is in Portsmouth, N.H.

Irving owns about 140 gasoline stations in New England, and supplies fuel to another 80 dealers, including the two new dealer relationships in Rhode Island, Trodson said.

The vast majority of the company-owned stations are managed by Alimentation Couche-Tard, the second largest owner/operator of convenience store retail sites in North America, Trodson said.

Irving sites are located mainly in New Hampshire and Maine, with some stores in Northern Massachusetts and Eastern Vermont.

tbarmann@projo.com