Pennz Plat has no PAO according to Safety Data Sheets which normally have to name it. (They don't have to name esters, oddly enough, for health-safety reasons I don't understand.)
So its Group3+ GTL with maybe some esters to help out.
The NAD decided Group3/3+ can be labelled "full synthetic":
https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/foru...astrol-mobil-court-case-how-it-went-down
I'd just go by what performance specs an oil gets awarded, and not as much by what % of PAO or esters it has. Its interesting though to look at the different approaches companies take.
It appears that oil makers who have access to the most scientists and their fancy intellectual property (patents etc.) making cool effective advanced additives can many times save themselves the higher cost of going all-PAO in their base oils. They can meet the highest performance specs and not have to use much PAO at all.
Group3 or Group3+ base oils can be labelled as "full synthetic" everywhere except Germany, Switzerland, & Austria.
Notice the ~20% mass in a motor oil can be non-syn diluent for the additive chemicals, just to understand.
from a past thread:
Originally Posted by Trav
Quote
found this Total at my vendor store in Germany, the seller in the description says it's a "Synthese technology",
In France and the rest of Europe (
except Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A&S were still using the German standard last time i looked in 2011) can call anything synthetic as long as they change the base stock by hydro cracking or maybe other methods.
A true synthetic will have "
Full synthetic or vollsynthese" on the container.
The words synthetic or 100% synthetic is no guarantee its anything but reworked dino oil.
vollsynthese is reserved for group IV and V oils but there is a fly in the ointment now, GTL which by definition is a true full synthetic oil and is called group III+.
The question is will German law allow it to be labelled as such?
I have no problem running a modern group III oil at all anywhere as long as i wasn't paying the same or a premium over PAO or ester based oils.
Like i said GTL is an issue, you may find some oils being produced with this base stock but are not labelled "vollsynthese" because of legal definitions.
This is interesting.
http://www.stle.org/assets/document/GTL.pdf