Ok, im going to probably **** off some people but here it goes...
To the person above who asked if it were against the law-NO! Let me explain. All gasoline, for the most part, is the EXACT same! There is an industry standard they follow and it produces 2 types of gasoline: fungible and direct.
Fungible fuel is a "generic" standard gasoline that meets industry standards that ALL of the petrol companies sell on the open market and send via the pipelines. Fungible means that when, say Chevron, makes a batch of gasoline, they will two batches (im being bery generic here for simplicity) thru the pipeline and one (fungible) goes to the open market(i.e. anyone who wants to buy it. like a chevron station in minot, N.D. they just add the TEchron), and one goes to the actual Chevron pipeline depot.
The difference is that the fungible will go to say like Powder Springs, GA Colonial Pipeline Co. depot which is the depot station for almost all of western GA.& AL. This fuel will almost always be carried by a contracted carrier to the INDEPENDENT (franchised) Chevron station. The direct fuel will go to the Chevron owned depot and be distributed by Chevron trucks to Chevron owned stations. These are the Chevron trucks you see. Now, sometimes youll see maybe a Chevron tanker but an independent trucker main cab hauling it. This is fungible gasoline and marketing. If its direct both the cab and the tanker will be Chevron.
Now, as for legality...ALL gasoline starts the same and is the SAME w/out additives. Like motor oils, additives make the largest difference. An independent Chevron station that gets its fuel from a "fungible" pipeline still must have the same required amount of Techron put into it by the Depot.
Here in Atlanta, our gas prices on average, are cheaper than anywhere else in the U.S. because, we have two or three major pipelines running gasoline into and thus lowers the price. One is owned by Colonial Pipeline Co. and is a fungible system that dist. to almost every station here in Atlanta except....BP's and Amocos. Both stations recieve their gasoline (to my knowledge evern the independents) from the BP depot here in Atlanta (norcross to be more succinct). Their trucks and tankers are owned and operated by BP. And the gasoline is the same.
I used to work for a major gasoline retailer (that I still cannot disclose due to anti-trust issues) and our gasoline was and is just as good as BP. And yes, at the Colonial Pipeline depot there is a huge tank that contains pure Techron additive that is dispensed for the Chevron stations.
What makes it legal for them to do this is simply the additives. I can legally call my brand of gasoline "Super 93 Petrol with IntelliClean" or whatever, IF I used an amount or type of additive that differentiates my gasoline (or Petrol for your Euros and Brits
) from someone else's. For instance, I used one more part of detergent than say Shell uses and I add some Techron to it. Then, I can say my gasoline brand works the best due to its formulation.
Its all about marketing guys and thats all. However, you can get some bad gasoline/petrol if they are mixing grades to save money, have poor tanks/quality control byt he state(very common), etc. Hope this helps some. Chris Jefferson
