Pennzoil/Quaker State refineries

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What refineries are Pennzoil Platinum, Ultra, and Quaker State Ultimate Durability synthetic oils made?
Are they made in the same refinery, and are they basically the same oil?
Is there a code on the bottle that says where they're made?
Thanks.
 
Pennzoil and Quaker state are brands owned and managed by marketing companies, they are not manufacturing companies. They buy the stuff from whomever meets their spec's. By definition, synthetic oil is not made by refinery otherwise it would be conventional oil.
 
There are not many companies that refine or make basestocks. The huge companies that sell gas like Exxon/Mobil, BP, Shell sell basestocks. The motor oil companies like Penzoil, Amsoil, etc just purchase basestock in a tanker railroad car.
 
Originally Posted By: Burt
Pennzoil and Quaker state are brands owned and managed by marketing companies, they are not manufacturing companies. They buy the stuff from whomever meets their spec's. By definition, synthetic oil is not made by refinery otherwise it would be conventional oil.



Pennzoil and QS are subsidiaries of SOPUS. Their oils are from Shell refineries all over the world.


Yes, true Synthetic (esp. Grp V) is not made at a huge refinery, but the majors use mostly their own refineries. Now Gasoline is a different story. No there are not Pennz. refineries but Shell does it.
 
It can be much more complicated that that. There are several dozen regional refineries around the US that refine base stocks, purchase base stocks, hydrotreater, blend, toll blend, etc. I know of several where major oil brands are produced, blended, bottled, and shipped out. The combinations are endless on figuring out where they might be made. In some plants, morning is brand x and afternoon is brand y, all produced and bottled on the same line. Now some manufacturers might keep that all in house, but knowing which ones do is likely impossible to find out.

Btw - beer is exactly the same way. Dozens of regional brewers making multiple brands at the same facility.

Economics and production 101 at work, least cost manufacturing....
 
Originally Posted By: Burt
Pennzoil and Quaker state are brands owned and managed by marketing companies, they are not manufacturing companies. They buy the stuff from whomever meets their spec's. By definition, synthetic oil is not made by refinery otherwise it would be conventional oil.


"By definition, synthetic oil is not made by refinery otherwise it would be conventional oil."

Not necessarily true
API Group III base oils are catalytic conversion of feed stocks under pressure in the presence of hydrogen into high-quality mineral lubricating oil. This is called hydro-cracking which is how group II/II+ mineral oils are produced.
Group IV general manufacturing process used to form PAO is performed by combining a low molecular weight material, usually ethylene gas, into a specific olefin which is oligomerized into a lubricating oil material and then hydrogen stabilized. There are a variety of basic building block molecules used to form the finished lubricant, which are dependent on the range of requirements of the specific lubricant. This has to be done in a refinery. One of XOM'S group IV plants is in Texas.
Group V is defined as oil is not group I,II,III or IV.
 
Marketers may wish to differentiate between "synthetic" and "conventional" but the line is now blurred moving to the center. Most all commonly available finished lubricants are NEITHER by strict definition. There really no longer exist any "conventional" oil for PCMO use that would meet even the low target, current ILSAC performance standards. And most major lubricants marketed as "synthetics" are not blended with majority base high performance group stocks (IV,V).
 
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