Dodgy fuel - busted

[Quiggers]

A general heads up:

A few weeks ago Ballina Petroleum Pty Ltd admitted to supplying a fuel which was not 98 BP Ultimate.

Ballina Petroleum Pty Ltd was selling BP Ultimate 98 octane but what was being sold was regular 91 octane unlead.

Ballina Petroleum P/L has eleven outlets (10 x BPs and an Ampol at the Big Prawn) on the Northern Rivers of NSW.

BP Australia has cut off any further business with Ballina Petroleum P/L, but until they (BP Aust) find an alternative, BP fuel (ex Brisbane) will continue to be sold thru the Ballina Petroleum outlets....

If anyone here has encountered fuel probs due to the disgraceful actions of Ballina Petroleum P/L, contact Sommerville Laundry Lomax solicitors in Lismore who are fronting a class action suit...

Me: I'm up for a 10 cents a litre refund for about 80,000ks of thinking I was buying 98 octane when I was getting 91 octane, and I'm also after damages, as my D1 has been sick for some time (as you regulars know) and all of my dramas have been fuel related....

Funnily enough, Today Tonight (a tv program we dont receive here) sent in
a crew of investigators, who took samples from the outlets, had them analysed and found the truth... I do understand several locals assisted...

And, watch your local juice.....

cheers, GQ

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Amazing. It astonishes me that there are govt people that check we get the right quantity of fuel, but no one that checks that we get the quality of fuel.

I really only use the big names for this reason as I hope I'm getting what I am paying for. :( :(

At least with my two petrol cars I'd only get a few K from the servo before I would know I didn't get ultimate :(

[100I]

I filled my bike at a big name yellow servo at Carina in Brissy one time and a few days later found a spot of paint missing near the filler where some had spilt, presumeably from toluene, this was supposed to be top shelf 98 which I always run in the bikes.
That REALLY ****ed me off.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I filled my bike at a big name yellow servo at Carina in Brissy one time and a few days later found a spot of paint missing near the filler where some had spilt, presumeably from toluene, this was supposed to be top shelf 98 which I always run in the bikes.
That REALLY ****ed me off.

Shell? They are supposed to use more volatiles in their fuel to boost octane.

Name names :)

[EchiDna]

can't say I'm shocked...

I see what happens over here in the blending industry and you would be amazed...

if it contains carbon chains, it can be used in a blend to reach the specifications for sale - everything from waste solvents to de-watered crude ends up in there as long as it hits the important RON/MON, viscosity and volume.

to say the government doesn't check is a bit harsh, they do - but it's expensive and there are shedloads of petrol stations out there.... much easier to check at the refinery, the distributor or the port isn't it?

[Bigbjorn]

A good while ago, one of the major oil terminals in Brisbane had a couple of tanks full of "shandy", a mix of motor spirit and distillate, as a result of pumping errors between the wharf, the refinery, and the tank farm. The management solution was to create an artificial shortage of fuel at the servos by sacking on the flimsiest of reasons, a couple of tanker drivers, a most militant group, and thus a threat of a strike. This caused panic buying by the servos who had been caught empty in past strikes. The operators were told all that was available was the "shandy" and they mostly said "send it". Result, all "shandy" sold at Super petrol price.

[Nat130]

Through work we heard of a case in the states where a tanker pulled up to delivery fuel and the petrol station guy took a dip reading before and all was fine.

The fuel was then delivered, truck drove off and the attendant took another dip reading.

Cars started filling up, got to the round-a-bout down the road and were all stopping.

The fuel was in fact water (the tank was being cleaned...not filled) and the attendant didn't put the gel that changes color for water on the dip stick so didn't realise.

As a result of that the petrol station closed down. If they damage their reputation bad enough that's what can happen.

[Camo]

Might change my rangie to straight LPG.. no worries at all then

Camo

[DeeJay]

Well my horror story is even better:) (mine's bigger than yours syndrome:cool:). A mate of mine - long ago enough now to repeat this one- was an Auditor with - lets say one of the big 3 oil companies.
They actually let a load of power kerosene out of the refinery as Avgas. They filled the Tullamarine storage terminal with it but luckily picked up the anomally in routine quality checks before refuelling any jets.
He said they did thier sums and it would have had enough oomph to get the jet up to speed but not enough for lift-off:eek:

[BigJon]

Might change my rangie to straight LPG.. no worries at all then

Camo

Except IIRC LPG is a blend of gases which can vary in quality too.

[100I]

yes that appears to be quite true, the range on ours varies wildly sometimes and we are now paying closer attention to which outlets are giving poor consumption.
at the end of the day tho, even a bad tank is a heck of a lot cheaper to run than petrol, or diesel for that matter.

[Quiggers]

The local paper has for weeks, been replete with readers comment about never buying fuel again from the dodgy supplier -

Sadly, the distributor wont be overly damaged, (that family is very rich) but the outlets, mostly run by (non related) families (like franchises) who rent the sites and acquire the fuel from Ballina Petroleum are hurting badly...

The dodgy distributor announced it would make a donation of $200,000 to a group which is planning a 'youth driver education facility'. Meaning that all the customers they've ripped off are actually making a donation for the facility.

Helping kids not kill themselves is good, but I 'd like my Disco to work properly.

GQ

[isuzurover]

Shell? They are supposed to use more volatiles in their fuel to boost octane.

Name names :)

I've said it before but I will say it again. There is no such thing as shell fuel in brisbane.

There are 2 refineries - BP and Caltex - they other "brands" (e.g. shell) have product sharing arrangements (e.g. bp supply shell with fuel in brisbane, and shell supply bp with fuel in melbourne).

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I've said it before but I will say it again. There is no such thing as shell fuel in brisbane.

There are 2 refineries - BP and Caltex - they other "brands" (e.g. shell) have product sharing arrangements (e.g. bp supply shell with fuel in brisbane, and shell supply bp with fuel in melbourne).

Sorry, I wasn't very clear with that. I know about that, but I was of the opinion that shell shipped their hi performance 98/100 fuel up to Brisbane, and that it consisted of more volatiles that the product produced by BP. At least that is what BP told us when we went to a fuels presentation they did for my lotus club at their Brisbane office :) Mind you it might have been all lies, or perhaps time has blurred my memory and the facts!

[isuzurover]

Sorry, I wasn't very clear with that. I know about that, but I was of the opinion that shell shipped their hi performance 98/100 fuel up to Brisbane, and that it consisted of more volatiles that the product produced by BP. At least that is what BP told us when we went to a fuels presentation they did for my lotus club at their Brisbane office :) Mind you it might have been all lies, or perhaps time has blurred my memory and the facts!

That MAY be the case for high octane fuel, but I doubt it, as the extra shipping would kill most of the margin. It certainly wasn't the case when I was working at a refinery in Brisbane. It may have been that they were getting their low-octane fuel from BP and their high octane from caltex.

There are rules on the volatility of fuels in summer and winter, and blends are adjusted accordingly. The refineries are not usually the ones that break the rules, it is the smaller distribution companies.

[Red Baron]

Slightly off thread I know, but my father in law left our place one evening, and went to a nearby servo to top up before his 2 hour drive home. He'd put about 40 lites of unleaded into the tank of his diesel Triton before realising. A couple of phone calls later saw me en route with several drums I was able to scrounge. The next hour was spent rolling around on the concrete forecourt of the servo trying to empty the tank....I ended up with several 20 litre drums of "shandy"!

[isuzurover]

Slightly off thread I know, but my father in law left our place one evening, and went to a nearby servo to top up before his 2 hour drive home. He'd put about 40 lites of unleaded into the tank of his diesel Triton before realising. A couple of phone calls later saw me en route with several drums I was able to scrounge. The next hour was spent rolling around on the concrete forecourt of the servo trying to empty the tank....I ended up with several 20 litre drums of "shandy"!

An uncle of mine told me that when he was a kid (post WWII I think) they didn't have much petrol but had diesel. They had an old 1930's chev that the kids would drive around the farm. They started it on petrol, and once iot was warm they ran it on diesel! He said it smoked like hell, but ran OK!