question about gasoline delivery

[The motor guy]

I've heard that even though you go to a certain brand of gas station that you may not necessarily be getting that brand of gas. Is this true? You could be getting what ever brand of fuel the truck is carrying. I got to thinking if this is the case then why do I waste my money on premium brands?

 

[Rand]

how do you think the gas got to the tanker truck?

 

[The motor guy]

The truck gets it from the refinery. I'm just wondering if say a shell refinery would put gas into a tanker truck that is going to a chevron station for example.

 

[Chris142]

Gas is the same. They all buy the gas from the same supplier. It's the addatives that they use or don't use that make top tier gas.

 

[CarbonSteel]

There is a fair amount of gasoline "trading" that happens. Ever wonder how a Chevron station has a gas delivery when the only refinery around is an XOM one or conversely, XOM receives a delivery and the only refinery around is a Chevron?

When Valdez happened and XOM was boycotted did it impact XOM? Answer, no--I remember seeing a Fina and Texaco tanker at the XOM docks loading up. XOM simply sold gas to the other refiners and thus the impact was near zero. We are at the mercy...

 

[SnPb]

There are several large refineries in the Houston area opperated by the likes of BP, Exxon, and Valero, but the 12th largest in the Country is Deer Park Refining in Deer Park TX. I don't think that Deer Park operates any retail Gas Stations to sell their product. They sell it to companies that do operate Gas Stations. Gasoline is a commodity. As someone else mentioned, it is the additives that may make it unique to a particular brand.

I stand corrected. Deer Park is affiliated with Shell. Nevertheless, I believe that most Gasoline is traded as a commodity before blending with additives and delivery to the retail station.

 

[hr1940]

When I worked for a shell jobber we ordered our fuel blended for the different grades of Shell products. Our truckers had a certain place to fill at the refinery and when I worked for Getty they did the same. After working for 5 years for the Shell jobber I could ask the drivers questions and they always answered me honestly. They said they only delivered Shell gas to the Shell stations and when they delivered to the sons stations it had to be only Chevron. The father owned the Shell stations and his sons owned the Chevrons. If they mixed up a delivery they were fired. I took care of the operation part of the stations and I called on some of the commercial accounts and sold oil, gas and diesel. It was a very interesting job.

 

[citationxeleven]

I asked our tanker driver this question (we are an independant retailer) he told me most of our gas comes from the BP Whiting refinery in Indiana, and some comes from Exxon in Joliet, IL.

 

[mechanicx]

Some gas station that don't have a gas brand like grocery store stations and convenience stores might get various brands of gas or even low additive gas. But if you go to a top tier brand like Shell, you are getting their additive package and quality control. All the base gas can come from the same place but it's the finished additized product that matters. The off brand stations accept whatever is sold to them low additive, waterdown, sloppy additive blending etc.

 

[crinkles]

Originally Posted By: hr1940
When I worked for a shell jobber we ordered our fuel blended for the different grades of Shell products. Our truckers had a certain place to fill at the refinery and when I worked for Getty they did the same. After working for 5 years for the Shell jobber I could ask the drivers questions and they always answered me honestly. They said they only delivered Shell gas to the Shell stations and when they delivered to the sons stations it had to be only Chevron. The father owned the Shell stations and his sons owned the Chevrons. If they mixed up a delivery they were fired. I took care of the operation part of the stations and I called on some of the commercial accounts and sold oil, gas and diesel. It was a very interesting job.


It's great to hear it first hand and I am glad to hear this.

I must say our local distributors DO get their fuel from different sources. Caltex (Texaco Down Under) deliver to my local Caltex, same for BP. THe actual trucks may be ABC Trucking Company Inc and DEF Haulage Inc for each, but they serve their own.

 

[Shannow]

Gap year I worked at a Shell station.

The fuel always turned up in a Shell Tanker, and Shell kept inventory levels, and dipped the tanks to be sure that we weren't getting non Shell fuel.

However, all of the fuel was railed into the territory from Sydney...Caltex filled at the Shell depot (they had their own tank with sticker), and Mobil/BP didn't seem to have depots.

 

[rshaw125]

Around here it all comes out of the same pipe. I used to pay the extra for 'top tier' Shell. After several years I realized it was a waste of money and started buying all my gas at the then new Costco. To this day I cannot tell any difference.

 

[cutter]

Gasoline delivery reminds me of Duff beer from the Simpsons.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: cutter
Gasoline delivery reminds me of Duff beer from the Simpsons.

I knew a truck driver that delivered bulk alcohol to a bottling plant. His truck looked like a gasoline truck. The bottling plant made the cheapo store branded alcohol. He learned than the cheapo Vodka, Brandy, Whiskey, Rum, etc was all the same alcohol but with different flavoring and color added.