Originally Posted By: Gokhan
As publicly announced by ExxonMobil, Mobil 1 is mostly, if not fully, Group III these days. If GTL becomes cheap, expect GTL in the future.
http://www.motor-talk.de/forum/aktion/Attachment.html?attachmentId=695007
Instead of just linking the PDF, why not post the relevant excerpts?
Originally Posted By: Mobil
Why are we reformulating Mobil 1?
A natural evolution of the formulation
• The Mobil 1 formulation strategy has always been based on selecting the best
components available. We now have the very high quality Group III+ base stock,
‘Visom’ exclusively available to ExxonMobil.
As we developed the Mobil 1 ESP
technology we found that combining Visom with PAO could deliver a formulation
of equivalent performance to an all PAO formulation.
Competitive advantage
• Visom is the only non-PAO stock that can deliver the required performance to
formulate a 0W grade oil that meets European OEM engine oil specifications.
Visom is not available to our competition.
To support Mobil 1 growth
• Global PAO capacity is limited. As we quickly approach this limit, new base
stocks must be explored to ensure we can support the continued growth of the
Mobil 1 family of products.
To ensure continuity of supply
• As we saw with the 2005 hurricane, the more flexibility we have in our
formulations, the better placed we are to withstand disruption to our supply.
We
can balance PAO and Visom supply fluctuations to ensure we can always deliver
the final product to our customers.
To maintain market relevant pricing
• As PAO supply has tightened globally, raw material costs have increased
substantially. In the future, an exclusively PAO formulation may be priced out of
the market or result in significant margin erosion.
To prepare for next generation basestocks (GTL)
• Commencing 2010, the next generation of base stocks derived from Natural Gas
(Gas To Liquids) will enter the market. These high quality basestocks will arrive
in substantial quantities and will probably be used in the majority of competitive
premium formulations. Visom is viewed as a precursor of GTL, and hence it’s
use now in our flagship formulations eases our transition to a GTL world, and
helps us understand how to maintain flagship performance using these high
quality non-PAO basestocks.
With the exception of Germany, this reformulation will be invisible to
consumers and B2B customers.
• Claims are identical with the exception of some now obsolete or soon to
be obsolete claims
• Performance of new formulations are equivalent to current formulations
Testing is underway to provide read-across of current marketing
claims to new formulations
Review will take place of current marketing literature to ensure
accuracy of specific claims to new formulations (e.g. if we quote
actual pour point values then this would need to be updated).
• There will be no proactive customer communication relating to this
reformulation. However, an internal briefing document and Q&A has
been prepared to allow sales to respond in the unlikely event of a
customer question.
Due to the unique definition of synthetic in Germany (Synthetic = 100%
PAO) this reformulation is visible to the consumer and B2B customers.
• A more proactive communication is being prepared for German use
I'm not sure how you take away from this that the products are majority Group III. It clearly states that they are blending VISOM with PAO. This presentation is also quite old, from a time when Mobil's GTL plant was still being constructed and well before they abandoned it. This can be easily gleaned from the last page of the document where they list the MRV of the 0w-40 product as 22,000cP and the "future" version at 29,000cP. It hasn't been 22,000cP for something like three or four iterations.