Biscuit

Gas is gas, regardless of brand. All are required to have a certain level of additives in each grade. There might be slight variations in the additive packages in different brands. But all of the companies, big and small, share the same pipelines, same distribution points, and often the same trucking services, and they buy their additives from the same company in Houston, TX. And they buy their ethanol from the same corporate agribusinesss who are subsidized with your tax dollars to grow the corn for that ethanol production.

trbizwiz

I thought cheaper gas had ethanol in it and the more expensive stuff did not. Ethanol waters down gas making it give you less MPg's.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mike Davis

WOW! I'm impressed with all the octane/brand discussion. I'd like to hear from a recent gasoline truck delivery person and get the real story on how many types of gas are in the truck delivery tank. I realize it must be regular and premium, but compartments for other "off" brands???

m998dna

During the BP oil spill, I read Costco is supplied by BP ....

I moved away from Exxon/Mobil a several years ago, for various reasons. I use Chevron now primarily for the Techron additive, and the fact my cousin and his wife works for Chevron. They live in Danville, near corporate headquarters. Originally a Director in corporate finance, my cousin took a job traveling the world about 15 years ago - he's been there for 30+ years.

A few years ago when I was visiting for a family gathering, I asked him about the oil business and how gas is refined, distributed, etc. Basically he said gas is all the same, with exception to the additives.... which supports what Biscuit wrote. I'm not convinced the claims that a delivery tanker has multiple compartments with different brands, grades etc. However, that claim may be valid if a single truck is making multiple deliveries and servicing common stations that use BP brands, i.e. Arco, Costco, Albertsons Markets.

I think it's a stretch however if someone is claiming a delivery tanker is making drops to Mobil, Chevron, Shell stations on a single run... with potentially nine different compartments. I say this because I worked in a Mobil service station in the 70's. We had three underground tanks and three grades. If I remember correctly the tanks were 10K to 30K gallons each, depending on the grade. A single tanker carried three grades and would drop a full load in one sitting.

.02

Chrislh

I worked at a Exxon Mobil station about 10 years ago and they actually only carry two. They mixed the regular and premium to make the middle grade.

m998dna

I said during the 70's.... we had three tanks, one for leaded premium, one for leaded regular, the other for unleaded regular. It was a large high-volume station. I was the night manager, measured the tanks and turned off the pumps during the energy crisis.

A lot has changed in 40 years... including gas formulations and underground tanks.

The point is... underground tanks are much larger than a delivery tanker can hold. Therefore a single delivery is most likely a half or full drop.

ronjenx

Doesn't add to the thread, but since cheap gas was brought up...

30¢ a gallon when I was driving my VW as a teenager. 19¢ a gallon in Texas when I went there to visit my brother.

(Heating oil in Maine was 12¢ a gallon.)

m998dna

Premium (Ethyl) was about 32¢ and regular 28¢ when I first started driving. Premium shot up to 50¢ a gallon overnight during the Arab Oil Embargo. People complain about paying high prices now... just think if they had to wait in a 2-hour line to get gas.

.

12thman

I have lurked here for a long time, but since I am new to Jeeps I haven't had much to contribute. I will add some info to what Titanium said. Hopefully it will save some of you money. Some of you wont believe me and that is what name brand refiners want. I work for an independent refiner in the Bay Area. There are two independent refineries in the area, Tesoro and Valero. There is also a ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell refinery in the area. We all buy gas from each other. If you go to the loading rack, you will see independent carriers as well as name brand trucks picking up. We all have contracts to supply our customers and sometimes we don't have the product to do that. Sometimes it is just cheaper to buy it from the other guy. We all have to do extensive maintenance at regular intervals and during these "turnarounds" we still have to supply our customers. Most refineries in this country are on the coasts. Local gas stations get their fuels at the refineries. Inland stations usually get their gas from terminals. We ship the gas/diesel there through a pipeline where it is stored in tankage until it is loaded into a truck. We ship the gas down the same pipeline as the name brand refineries and it goes into the same tanks by type. (All 87 octane into one tank, all 91 into another, etc.) Then Arco, BP, Chevron, Shell, whoever, picks it up to make their deliveries or an independent transport picks it up. So they pick up a mix of everyone's gas. This is when the only difference happens. Some companies have additives like Techron, V-Power, etc. that go into their fuel. There isn't any regulation about how much additive there has to be, so Chevron with Techron just has to have some Techron additive. Another side note that you may find interesting is that the brand of gas station doesn't mean anything. My company owns hundreds of Shell stations. We haven't rebranded them because people are willing to pay more at a Shell station. Some of these are right next to USA gas stations that we also own. 87 is 87. 91 is 91 and 89 is usually 91. We don't produce 89 octane gas. Buy whatever makes you feel good, but don't do it because you think one brand is better than the other. By the way, according to a few mechanics I know, as well as a chemical engineer in our quality assurance lab, Techron is a very good additive, but you can buy just the Techton additive off the shelf and then add it to your gas tank. At least you will know you are getting it. The mechanics say that adding it, per instructions, to one tank out of every 5-6 is more beneficial than the Chevron gas every fill up. Sorry for the long post. Hopefully some of you find it usefully.

CH10

Yep, the trucks aren't limited by volume it is the weight that limits the capacity. Gross weight for the truck is limited to 80,000 lbs. Typical truck with tanker weighs in at roughhly 35,000-38,000 lbs with gas weight at 6 lbs/gal they are limited to only approximately 7500 gallons.