Will Exxon selloff stop Big Oil conspiracies?

Probably not, although this would dissuade any rational person from believing that Big Oil is conspiring to jack up gas prices in the U.S.:

ExxonMobil is selling all, yes all, of its U.S. gas stations.

That includes both the 800 or so it directly owned and operated stations and the 1,400 leased to franchisees.

Why?

In a word, even with prices at the pump the way they are, Exxon says there’s not enough profit on that end of the stick.

BUT, if we take Rex Tillerson at face value — a hard thing to do, admittedly — why would anybody else pay more than pennies on the dollar for them?

More seriously, it looks like Exxon is looking for any money it can to help fund additional exploration, or else to build new refineries, or both.

Texas is one of ExxonMobil’s largest sites of company-owned gas stations, from Mobil’s historic presence here, of course.