Where does our fuel come from?

[LARRY BRUDZYNSKI]

This was some interesting reading...

 

http://www.eia.doe.gov/bookshelf/brochures/gasoline/index.html

[Tony302600]

And according to the BG guys demonstration....all the gasoline doesnt meet standards unless you use there addivitves and flushes.

[LARRY BRUDZYNSKI]

I don't know about the rest of you but this winter was a fairly cold winter, but I didn't sell nearly as much antigel or additives as last year. Could the oil companies be putting the additives in before delivery?

[Jim Warman]

I think that this can be a complex subject on both sides of the border....

 

Here, in Canada, and I am fairly sure that the same will be 'de riguer' in the US, the majors "trade" refinery capacity.

 

For example, in western Canada, Esso petroleum Canada is very strong in all product lines. Husky oil has modest facilities in western Canada and much (but not all) of their mogas and diesel (as well as lube oils) came from Esso Petroleum Canadas Edmonton Facility - Husky has (or at least had) a modest facility at Balzac, Alberta (just north of Calgary) but we would rarely see their product in the northern parts of the province.

 

Bear in mind that my info is old... but i am reasonably sure that it is still somewhat accurate.

 

With a refinery in Taylor BC and another, larger facility on "refinery row" in Edmonton, they process and ship huge volumes of gasoline (mogas), gasoline (avgas), diesel fuel and lubes. Many of these would be Husky (and, I am sure others) branded even though processed on the EPC line.

 

Now... we are all familiar with the "meets or exceeds" label. Unless somebody has you bent firmly over the pump island, you will find that a refinery will usually be more than happy to market a product that "exceeds" a given spec as being a "meets" product if for no other reason that to keep refinery production in the sweet zone...

 

This is to say that a line needs to churn out "X" gallons a day to be profitable.... selling a product to a "competitor" to be marketed as a lesser product to keep a line volume higher is a production manager decision...

 

I wont pretend to know all the ins and outs of the petrochemical business, but the years I spent trying to hustle gasoline and diesel opened my eyes to things that are too obvious for the layman to take into account. There is no gasoline conspiracy, but all these companies are so hopelessly in bed with each other that you can't tell what is the basis for a lot of marketting decisions.

 

FWIW, our area is better off for EPCs involvement with "blanket" sales. Slave Lake is included in the "arctic" environment and, as such, we get P40 diesel fuel beginning in about late Oct/early Nov.... I have been told that P40s "cloud point" is -40 C... Cloud point refers to the temp when diesel fuel "waxes off".... some of you call this "gel point".

 

This another of those hip bone connected to the leg bone connected to the knee bone things that we see ever so often in anything to do with automotives - one of those things that can, sometimes, defy description...

 

Until we remember.... In "On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors", John DeLorean quotes a high level GM exec as saying "General Motors is NOT in the business of making cars... it IS in the business of making money....". and so is Dana, Siemens, Bosch, Visteon, Exxon...

 

Fewer and fewer people possess more and more of the worlds wealth... Perhaps Omni Consumer Products may yet market the SUX2000 in Delta City. Those of us less jaded by the modern age will watch the masses flock to the next "fad"....

 

Jeez... I went off on a tangient, again.... didn't I????