Why has this oil gotten so crazy expensive? Its absurd what it costs now.
Why has this oil gotten so crazy expensive? Its absurd what it costs now.
What oil specifically do they purchase (and ship) from the Middle East?Their business model is hitting its limits:
- Buy oil in the middle east, ship to Germany
- Refine in Germany, the highest-cost production location
- Ship it to the US, the world’s #1 oil producer, to compete
Any small shock in those multiple, marginal links is going to ruin their competitiveness.
What oil specifically do they purchase (and ship) from the Middle East?
Many Ravenol oils (e.g., VMP) are fully synthetic-the base is PAO, and not dino oil. Ergo, the cost of dino oil doesn't come into play.
You may need new sources since no FTIR analysis has ever shown GTL in a Ravenol product at the German and Russian oil club forums. It’s always PAO plus some III or V and one had a bit of AN.Sources say a large part of their base stock comes from GTL from Pearl. This may be a positive for their product, but not a positive in price stability give logistical challenges.
You may need new sources since no FTIR analysis has ever shown GTL in a Ravenol product at the German and Russian oil club forums. It’s always PAO plus some III or V and one had a bit of AN.
So, we are to believe that you can spot the GTL peaks in the spectrum with Shell / Pennzoil and Mobil products, but not Ravenol because they "refine it further"?Meaningless. If a pure base stock was simply blended, you’d detect it. If it were further refined, as Ravenol does, you would not detect it as such. Pearl provides feed stocks used in producing PAOs and other products, as well as completed base stocks for blending.
The point of the matter is that Ravenol is a high-cost producer. They don’t get all their chemical base stocks solely from the German home market, though it is a not insignificant source. A minute dissection of their supply sources is a tangential distraction.
Ravenol is not buying GTL from Shell and "further refining it". Shell offers a portfolio of GTL bases, either Ravenol is buying from that portfolio or they aren't. It's odd that Shell doesn't produce PAO, since Pearl does produce ethane, which is typically used as a feedstock for ethylene, to produce PAO, but then Shell has no history of PAO production either, so it may be cheaper for them to just buy it from XOM if they need it, which I would assume is rare, since it's not something we see in their products.Meaningless. If a pure base stock was simply blended, you’d detect it. If it were further refined, as Ravenol does, you would not detect it as such. Pearl provides feed stocks used in producing PAOs and other products, as well as completed base stocks for blending.
The point of the matter is that Ravenol is a high-cost producer. They don’t get all their chemical base stocks solely from the German home market, though it is a not insignificant source. A minute dissection of their supply sources is a tangential distraction.
Ravenol is not buying GTL from Shell and "further refining it". Shell offers a portfolio of GTL bases, either Ravenol is buying from that portfolio or they aren't. It's odd that Shell doesn't produce PAO, since Pearl does produce ethane, which is typically used as a feedstock for ethylene, to produce PAO, but then Shell has no history of PAO production either, so it may be cheaper for them to just buy it from XOM if they need it, which I would assume is rare, since it's not something we see in their products.
Some engines are thoroughbreds, others are simply workhorses. Nothing wrong with a workhorse but boutique style oats are not necessary.Everyone obsessing about oil, meanwhile at work I’m driving an ‘06 Econoline with 350k miles that has been neglected with garbage jiffy lube conventional oil changes every 10k miles. Runs like a champ.