Originally Posted by
Bewtiched
It would be interesting to know for sure if the "premium" diesel is the same base diesel with additives to make it "premium" or if it is a completely different and more refined based fuel ...
Mate of mine worked for two distribution companies for a number of years.
Same base diesel, and additives added to differentiate.
Can't exactly remember the mix ratio, or if it would mean anything anyhow, but it's well under 1000lt per 8000lt base fuel as he recalls it.
So they'd pull the tanker up to the gantry, it's all automated, so he pushes some order number and the gantry fill the tanks as needed.
Only thing some operators have to do is open close hatches manually, otherwise it's all automated .. so no way to tell what the additive could actually be(say by smell).
BUT!, what happens, not all the time, but regularly, is that say the tanker needs to fill both regular station diesel tank and also the premium tank.
Most times they need to estimate how much actual capacity remains, as orders are taken day before, and demand after order is taken can vary .. so they sometimes have excess premium diesel(due to lower than expected demand), and more usually slightly more remaining capacity in the regular diesel tanks.
So they're told not to bring excess fuel back, and in some cases, if the station has no allowance to dump all the tankers capacity, the tanker may be diverted to another station on the way back to get rid of all load.
Otherwise it's a longer process to dump excess fuels at the terminals.
So what usually happens is that the regular diesel tanks can get a dose of the premium additives via the premium diesel.
But obviously this is a much more diluted additive to the regular tank, so don't expect it to be as premium as the regular premium.
Basically, if the station sells a premium diesel, chances are that the regular diesel may contain traces of premium too. Whether it makes any difference is another question, but highly unlikely too.
From memory, whilst diesels use the same base stock, petrols are all sources from different tanks ... so higher octane is a different fuel.
He never got the chance to get inducted into the Caltex depot, but they get their diesel from either Shell or Mobil. Same with BP(here in Melb/Vic).
Not sure if all the BPs get Mobil/Shell diesel, or if he only did overflow orders, but definitely many BP stations around Vic get either Shell or Mobil diesels.
He never did any Shells, only some rural Mobils, but those two definitely don't interchange their fuels(not in the years that he worked the industry).
What never made sense to me, is the price of Costco deisel, I got my last tank at 134.7, and everyone in the area for about 50sq klms other than some indies here and there are up in the high 140's low 150s .. so about 15cpl cheaper than all the majors in the area, and about 6cpl cheaper than the cheapest indie.
Costco gets Mobil fuel from secondary distributors, can't remember all the names of them, but Monaro Fuels comes to mind, as does Petrogas(Mobil offshoot).
One of the mobs he used to work for Petrogas deliver to Costco .. so you if buy Costco, you're just buying Mobil diesel .. just 15cpl cheaper!
Arthur.
All these discos are giving me a heart attack!
'99 D1 300Tdi Auto ( now sold :( )
'03 D2 Td5 Auto
'03 D2a Td5 Auto
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