Originally Posted by anndel
Originally Posted by DGXR
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by dave1251
Techron is one of the products Chevron is consistently tweaking. I would use it and not worry.
Why try to "fix" it,
if it isn't "Broken"?
Considering the staggering profits by most oil companies (courtesy of the motoring public), I'm glad they are investing in more R&D. After all, if they develop a new molecule, they can patent it and possibly make billions more. So they aren't trying to "fix" this just for giggles. It's a massive, massive industry. If they don't come out with the latest whiz-bang product, someone else will.
Here is a thought. The local ARCO station has regular at $3.09 and the Chevron across the street has regular for $3.55. For me, that's nearly $8 saved every fill-up.
I have serious doubts that the Chevron fuel will return enough improved economy to justify the 46-cent per gallon premium.
And here is the kicker: both ARCO and Chevron are top-tier fuels.
When I worked at the local Chevron Refinery, they had tanker trucks from Shell, Texaco and Aloha Petroleum at the loading racks. Aloha gas was the cheapest in the state at that time about a $0.75 difference between Chevron gas and Aloha Gas. The price difference may be due to the name brand of Chevron vs. unknown Aloha and the additives they used. When I started back in 1993 it was Techcroline then soon after Techron.
I believe Chevron would just treat their depot like any other where they consider it a fungible commodity. I thought that a lot of the terminals are owned/operated by the pipeline operators.
As much as people like to believe the marketing, most fuel is a fungible commodity that's nearly always mixed with fuel from different refineries and different refining companies. I guess there are some speciality fuels that are piped as segregated shipments, but that costs more than using the pipeline system like a bank where the manufacturer deposits it at one end, and the buyer withdraws it at a convenient "branch". In a market where there might be pennies of profit per gallon, are they really going to want to pay 10 cents a gallon for a segregated shipment where they might need to pay more for segregated tanks, or are they OK with paying 3 cents a gallon and withdrawing from tanks using commodity fuel that they know will meet all requirements?
I'm pretty sure that Chevron sells plenty of fuel to buyers on the spot market, and even allows the use of its fuel terminals for "withdrawals". And that would mean providing branded and generic additives at the rack.
Still - my understanding is that the vast majority of refiners/fuel marketers don't even develop their own additives. Chevron certainly does. I think Sunoco does too. The EPA list is filled with a lot of names including Lubrizol, BASF, and Afton. I'm pretty pretty sure that Chevron sells both a generic additive they developed, as well as additives that are customized for their competitors.
https://www3.epa.gov/otaq/fuels1/ffars/web-detrg.htm
I remember seeing an additive from the ExxonMobil/Shell joint venture Infineum. As much as they've both got ads hinting that they're developing these additives in their own labs, the EPA certification list suggests that they're just buying it from someone else now.
