Significant trends affecting the growth of supermarket forecourts and oil company branded sites have been highlighted in the latest market report Experian Catalist.

It shows the rapid development of forecourts by two of the four major supermarkets has ground to a halt. Tesco is down one to 504 in the third quarter (Q3) of 2016, compared with the same quarter a year earlier, while Morrisons is down two to 334, having sold two sites to MFG.

In contrast Asda has added 18 sites in the same period growing to 295, while Sainsbury’s added five to reach 306.

In the oil company branded sites BP has maintained its lead, although it is down eight, to 1,277. However, the race for second place has changed markedly with Esso opening up a substantial lead over Shell. In the third quarter of 2015 Esso narrowly overtook Shell with 1,025 sites versus 1,021. But in the intervening year Esso has added another 45 sites to stand at 1,070 in Q3 this year, while Shell has added just two sites to reach 1,023.

The main reason for the substantial gain by Esso has been the takeover of a tranche of Co-operative Group sites by Rontec, and their subsequent re-branding. This is also the main reason why Texaco’s total has fallen from 826 to 769 over the same period, as the Co-op sites’ petrol offer had been branded Texaco.

One other major change in the latest figures is the inclusion of Applegreen with 75 sites. Previously Applegreen had been included in the figure for minor brands.