Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Goodall
This is quite interesting - posted on Lycos:
I used to work for this industry and can confirm that the supermarkets buy their petrol from the same refineries as the major brands such as Shell and Esso but, they are not the same petrol / diesel. It is the additives that differentiate between the branded products and the not quite so good quality supermarket own brands. I’m surprised to say there is no branding on the tankers you see delivering the petrol to your supermarket though. They are commonly branded with the name of a petrol company. This is because they are no longer owned by the petrol companies so can transport fuel for who ever they want and you frequently see branded tankers delivering to supermarkets but they do not contain the same fuel.
All fuels come from the same refinery (s) and are essentially the same, the difference is in the additives. At our local oil terminal at Buncefield in Hemel Hempstead (scene of the recent fire), petrol is received by pipeline from BP, Total/Fina and Shell refineries.
Each type of fuel is kept in the separate brands at the terminal, they don’t have special tanks for fuel destined for supermarkets.
The tankers are filled from the appropriate tanks regardless of their destination but the additives are added before the tanker leaves the depot. All fuels have additives included … the difference is that the branded petrol has additives that enhance the performance and the supermarket petrol has additives to make it cheaper. Mineral oil is often added to diesel fuel for example. There is a maximum level of contamination of mineral oil permitted and the supermarkets regard this as a standard and not a maximum.
If you think that supermarket petrol is the same as from your branded fuel supplier, remember the damage to people’s cars caused by using Tesco and Morrisons petrol last year. The reason for this was that it was made using reclaimed/scrap toluene solvent which had been used to wash PCBs in electronics factories. No reputable oil companies were involved in that scandal as I’m sure none of them would use a cut price additive such as this.
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confirmed by my old man who works for Shell
