By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The highly anticipated opening of the new Maverik station in south Raton has happened with a soft opening on Tuesday December 16, 2025.
The store will have 15 full time employees and be open 24 hours for the traveling public and are host to the Bonfire Grill. The station has five double sided gasoline pumps and four double sided diesel pumps to handle trucks. Ratonians were hopeful that the station would help bring down gasoline prices but at $2.85 a gallon and $2.75 a gallon with their discount card it wasn’t as much as many had hoped.
For this area Maverik will purchase most of its fuel from a facility near Colorado Springs while many of the stations in Raton purchase fuel from a facility in Amarillo Texas. The closest refineries to Raton include the Suncor Refinery in Denver and the Phillips 66 refinery and WRB refinery in Borger Texas and the Diamond Shamrock refinery near Sunray Texas.
The cost of oil has a big effect on the cost of gasoline as does the type of oil that is refined. Sour crude oil requires more processing while sweet crude requires less. Once the oil is refined into gasoline the gasoline is pumped via pipeline to storage facilities. The refineries near Borger Texas pipe their fuel to Amarillo, Albuquerque and to facilities in Colorado as well as to the east. Since Raton is basically at the end of the line transportation costs also factor into the gasoline cost. When the fuel crosses the state line coming from Colorado and Texas there are gasoline taxes that are added. Companies like Loves and Maverik have their own tanker trucks and can control some of those costs. Gas stations that must rely on contract tankers however can’t control those costs and simply have to search out the best deal.
The cost of fuel continues to go down. What will 2026 bring and will the added competition of a major corporation like Maverik help keep prices lower in Raton over the next year?
