BMW replaces Castrol with Shell Next Year

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The deal is probably financial in nature with little if anything to do with the performance of the oil once its in the engine. I'd bet there are a lot of good candidates if your just talking oil performance in the engine. Still, I'd us what the factory recommends and not try to outguess them.
 
Originally Posted By: Lead Shoes
http://www.bmwblog.com/2014/11/10/bmw-replaces-castrol-shell-recommended-oil-supplier/

This should be interesting... I really hope it translates into more shell 40/60wt offerings in North America to compete with Mobil 1/Castrol as high quality and readily available euro spec oils.

Shell is at least as capable of high-end stuff as Castrol is, so this sounds like neutral-to-positive news for the end user.

It'll be interesting indeed to see what happens with the BMW applications that take Castrol Edge Professional 10w-60 (formerly Castrol TWS). Those applications already cause a lot of hand-wringing about oil choice, and they are lucky to have access to a product that has essentially been developed alongside the engines. If BMW switches things up for those applications, prepare for earthquakes -- especially if they simply switch over to Shell's existing Helix Ultra 10w-60 rather than some custom formulation...
 
That's what I was interested in... seeing a 5w30 euro ll-01/04 Pennzoil at BMW dealerships and a possible Xw40 on shelves would be cool.

I don't think people are going to stop clinging to Castrol anytime soon and the real //M purists will never let TWS go. This will be comical since Castrol/BMW only tied together for business but some owners wont switch to Shell products now that they changed sponsors, lol.
 
I think the switch to Shell/Pennzoil will have definite benefits for BMW owners with gasoline direct injection turbocharged motors. Shell is way ahead of the others in the practical implementation of GTL technology (gas to liquid). As far as I know, Shell is the only oil company to have two refineries in operation capable of producing lubes and fuels made from natural gas on a global scale: one in the Persian Gulf (the Pearl refinery in Qatar) and the other in Indonesia.

Some of the advantages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWO_S_SE-u4.
 
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RDS is as capable of blending appropriate oils as BP is.
RDS must have offered BMW a better deal.
RDS already offers oils that have the BMW certs.
Nothing earth shaking and nothing to get excited about either way.
The label may change but the song remains the same.
 
Completely agree that there's no real evidence that big changes are coming. The GTL thing is promising, though.
 
I don't know if there would be any resistance to Shell Helix 10W-60 if it were readily available in normal commercial markets.

The biggest problem with TWS is that it's a dealer only item and costs 2-3 times the amount it would if it were sitting beside LL-01 Castrol 0W-40 at Advance Auto.

$32.95 ($22.95 after the $10 rebate) for a five quart jug of Helix 10W-60 and a free FRAM Ultra to boot would go a long way in helping M owners make the transition.

I believe the Helix would be capable.
 
as most of us know few companies MAKE oil but are blenders. picking the better base stocks + additives gives a better finished product. at this time only pennzoil labeled products are said to use GTL oils but who knows really what goes in the bottles. shell being part of the group could be using GTL oils sooner than later. manufacturers SWITCH recommendations based on $$$$ as most better oils are better + can be blended to the desired specs
 
I'm not much of a skeptic but Shell does have an abundance of GTL.

So I'm sure if Pennzoil says its GTL on the bottle, it's GTL.

Nearly a year ago, there was some suggestion that GTL was making it's way into some PYB and QSAD 5W-20 bottles due to their relatively low NOACK numbers.

http://www.pqiamerica.com/Feb2014/consolidated5w20ALL.html?utm_source=March+3%2C+2014&utm_campaign=3-3-14&utm_medium=email
 
Originally Posted By: benjy
as most of us know few companies MAKE oil but are blenders.


Yes. However XOM and SOPUS are both companies that MAKE oils.
 
Originally Posted By: Jeffs2006EvoIX
Yeah all this is financial. Pennzoil just under bid Castrol by 1 cent per liter.

Jeff


In reality it probably went down something like that.
 
Originally Posted By: m6pwr
Some of the advantages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWO_S_SE-u4.


Aaaaah, the muddy river analogy. All this scientific support for GTL is underpinned by a MASSIVE flaw in the comparison. You don't filter crude oil to get base oil, you distill it. Guess what you get if you distill muddy river water? That's right, pure, clear water. I can't believe someone approved that message and let it out.

As to the OP, note that the deal is for aftermarket oils. Stuff you might buy in dealers. Shell will supply the BMW-branded oil and BMW will recommend dealers to use Shell-branded products, but dealers can use what they want. Furthermore, there's no mention in the press release about factory-fill.
 
I wouldn't get too hung up on the video's metaphor of the muddy water. It was perhaps a clumsy way to emphasize the purity of gtl base stocks.

You can Google gas to liquid (gtl) lubes and find many, many articles describing the advantages of gtl base stock over crude oil base stock: outstanding thermal stability; excellent shear stability; outstanding resistance to oxidative thickening; very low deposition and acidification, virtually no sulphur or nitrogen; excellent low temperature fluidity; very low volatility, and so on. The phrase that's used over and over in the articles is that gtl is comparable in performance to pao base stock. The only downside mentioned in any of the articles is the cost to produce gtl is comparable to pao (those costs may change).

So lets see: BMW has struck a deal with Shell to buy pao-performing lubes for pennies less (according to some posts) than what they're paying to BP/Castrol. I'd say, "Well Done BMW."
 
Originally Posted By: m6pwr
I wouldn't get too hung up on the video's metaphor of the muddy water. It was perhaps a clumsy way to emphasize the purity of gtl base stocks.


It was a technically FLAWED way to emphasize a distinction that, in reality, is close to indistinguishable. GTL base oil is Group III. The difference is where the hydrocracker feedstock comes from - distilled from crude or from a F-T reaction. There are some end-product differences, but conventional 'Group III+' can pretty much match GTL.

A significant benefit to Shell that is NOT mentioned is that it is a way of monetising a stranded gas field; a large natural gas reserve located in a place where nobody wants or needs natural gas. Moving LNG around has its issues, so liquefying it as base oil and fuel allows it to feed into the well-established infrastructures for them.

And I repeat - the release only mentions aftermarket oils, not factory-fill. FF is where BMW actually buys and pays for the oil - aftermarket oils are bought and paid for by the dealers and workshops.
 
FF vs aftermarket service fills. Very astute distinction. So what BMW AG pays should be even less of a deciding factor in the switch from Castrol to Shell - - probably not a factor at all.

As for the argument re grp III+ vs pao (gtl). That's an argument that could be had independent of BMW's switch I suppose. My interpretation of the literature is that gtl performs better in certain areas - - certainly in aspects that might be of concern in a turbocharged direct injection engine. Whether gtl performs THAT much better over the long run - - who knows. As for me, I guess I'm an "early adopter". I'm looking forward to using whatever BMW/Shell whips up in my N55 turbocharged direct injection motor. I don't think it will be a step backward.
 
PAO is polyalphaolefins, which are made by oligomerizing (polymerizing) olefins - hydrocarbon molecules with a carbon-to-carbon double bond that is not in an aromatic ring.

Ethylene is used as the building block; ethylene is derived from crude oil fractions and natural gas liquids via steam cracking and fluid catalytic cracking for the most part.

GTL is gas-to-liquids and doesn't tend to produce olefins (although there are some methanol to olefins processes, which conceivably could use methanol produced via GTL as a feed stock). GTL processes produce primarily alkanes, hydrocarbon molecules without carbon-to-carbon double or triple bonds. Isomerization (rearranging the molecular structure for more branching) of such molecules produces in the gasoline range molecules with higher octane value and in the lubricants range molecules with more desirable lubricating properties. Hydrocracking and hydroisomerization of crude oil fractions also produces such molecules.
 
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