Originally Posted by bbhero
Again... It's not whoopty Doo know nothing's refining the gas.... Plain and simple... It has to be from a real deal refiner. Whether it be Exxon, Chevron, Valero, BP or Shell...
My step father worked at refinery... And understood the Pipelines... Aka the colonial pipeline and plantation pipeline on my area... And by the way... His refinery made gasoline for all the Delmarva... Whether it was a Citgo, Exxon, Shell or whoever else branded
gas station... The refinery was Amoco at that time. They did not get Ultimate 93... But everything else was Amoco gas. This refinery also supplied areas to the north at times has well... Via barge...
Now with the refinery gone locally... The area get gasoline from the plantation pipeline spur that come from the area west of where I am at... This spur actually goes where??? Guess where??? Amoco docks... Where the refinery has the docks... This same plantation spur goes to south Hampton roads area to supply the Navy has well. Plus other hubs has well...
Gas is sent and deals made well ahead of time... Now my area gets gasoline from the pipeline... Whether that be Exxon, Shell or whoever else... And guess what?? So does Costco.... The additives are added at the rack...
Again... It's not some bunch of some strange fools making the gas. Just like it was before the refinery shut down. That refinery made contracts with more places in the Hampton roads area when BP took over... This led to the refinery actually making money. Which it was a break even affair prior to BP coming in. Amoco used the refinery has a testing ground... Whiting and Texas City were the major profit centers at that time. I wish Giant had kept the refinery... They did a good job managing the refinery. Western took over and were stupid. And caused it to be shut down.
I live near the Chevron Richmond refinery, which at one time was the largest oil refinery in the world. If their sirens go off I can hear them. Within the city of Richmond are four fuel terminals (Chevron, Phillips 66, Plains All American, and Kinder Morgan). Apparently Valero was looking to buy two local terminals from Plains, but gave up.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/v...deal-after-california-lawsuit-2017-09-18
However, Costco is different since they no longer have a detergent additive added at the rack. It's stored on site and added at the time of delivery.
But yeah - somehow marketing has led people to think that there's some sort of magic quality to base fuel when they're almost always treated as commodities. Even the whole thing about developing fuel additives can be a myth. The only major oil companies with certified detergent additives on the EPA list are Chevron and Sunoco. The other oil companies might have a "branded additive" but it's just something they buy from Afton, BASF, Lubrizol, etc. I think many even buy from Chevron Oronite.
Still - some of the refiners are small names that few outside the industry have heard of. Andeavor used to be Tesoro, so that might be better known. There are a couple of small refiners in Bakersfield, California (Kern Oil and San Joaquin Refining) that can make fuel to the same standards as the refineries with 10 times the capacity.
https://www.energy.ca.gov/almanac/petroleum_data/refineries.html