Howdy! Most companies offer regular, super and supreme of octanes 87, 89, and 91 (or 93 in my area) and i know the octane ratings are the same for all the gas brands, but what is the difference between Shell 93 octane and Exxon 93 octane and Chevron and lets not forget the o so cheap Kroger Grocery Store gasoline?

Any kind of input is appreciated as i have always wondered about this....

It may help to explain how oil is distributed once its pulled out of the ground. Thanks a lot! -Karl

 

There isn't any. The feds regulate everything. When Shell is on a short supply, they buy from Chevron, and vice versa. The whole branding issue of gasoline is purely a marketing deal. There's a reasonable chance it wasn't even made at the refinery owned by the station name on the sign that you're filling up at.

My dad works at a refinery, and I was amazed to see a Phillips 66 truck and a Texaco truck filling up at the Conoco refinery (this was before the conocophillips merger). I was like WTF dad?

 

I thought Shell offered V-power, which is more expensive than vanilla 93 octane. What makes it cost more?

 

It's "suppose" to have additives.

 

octane rating is derived from ron and mon octane ratings now i forget wich ones the better , but you could be getting shittier gas with the same octane rating.. reason being they take the two ratings add them together then divide by two to get the pump rating .. but idk if that means they come from different places or get different distributors.. another experience i had with bad gas - i went to texaco dunno why..i got high test to put in my dirtbike, mixed the gas like i normally do , then put it in.. wouldnt start for its life, and yz 2 strokes not starting first kick, means somethings not right. so i dump the gas out, go to exxon, and do the same thing .. started first kick. also that texaco turned into a shell, and they soposedly didnt change over anything from what the texaco had (selling the gas that was formerly texaco's) . might of been water in the gas rather then octane. but after experimenting with alot of different stations, i know ive gotten the best or most trouble free gas from bp or vp . but i only bother this much with my dirtbike(high compression) , my car seems to run on anything (short of that one texaco turned shell station) i just go for the cheapest high test, or stop wherever im closest to, when i need gas.

 

My Father used to work with a former fuel tanker truck driver. He said all the fuel came in thru the same pipe and from there went to the different sections for different companies.... Chevron, Shell, Exxon etc.. The additives were blended in each companies respective section and from there loaded onto the tankers. Only AAmoco Ultra 94 came thru a different pipeline than the other gas. Usually the non name gas stations have a mix of all the leftovers from the brand names.

 

ding ding ding, i dont like to say it but my uncle is a VP for gas station chain, so he is involved in the purchuse of gas each year, another thing most people do not know is that the gas stations usually only buy gas once a year in a big lump sum and pay that price then, and not every day like it flucuates day to day now, they do all put a different additive in the gas when it arrives at the station, but thats like 5 gallons to what 5,000 or whatever the tankers hold?

so the gas in BP's pumps and shells pumps comes from the same place, or filling station, there is one close to my house and i see all different kinds of tankers coming and going every day, its nothing more then a big rip off

 

Then why the hell do the prices go up and down every day? is it like " oh well gas might be more per barrel now so were gonna jack the price up and **** people in the *** just in case its that much next year."

And also, i find that if i buy gas from HESS or citco/7-eleven gas stations i get pretty good mileage, around 20. But if i buy from the racetrak or flying J or pilot I.E. truck stop type gas stations i get like 15. is it just my driving or is gas actually better at these stations?

 

What about stations like Sunoco that add 10% Ethanol.
You pay less but get less gas mileage.

 

At least you have a choice, all of our gas is 10% ethanol, even though there are no stickers on the pumps to tell you so. The day after that requirement was lifted, all the E10 stickers disappeared from the stations that used it, and I believe that even the ones who didn't before, now use E10.

I'd prefer not to have it, milage goes down. If nothing else, (performance wise) I hate making more fuel stops than I need to.