EW

Does anyone have some solid information on sulphur content in the various brands of gas? I've been using Shell lately and noticed a slight sulphur odor and at 9500 miles, I know that the catalytic converter can't be spent.<p>Sulphur's not good for the engine and I'd like to avoid it.<p>Eric

Person familiar with gasoline business

Gasoline sold in the California market can contain a maximum of 0.03% sulfur, vs. a requirement of ~0.05% for the rest of the country (stricter spec in California is promulgated by CARB--California Air Resources Board). <p>There is no appreciable difference in sulfur content between the various brands of gasoline. One little-known fact about the gasoline marketing industry is that the gasoline you buy at the station of Company X is often made in the refinery of Company Y. Gasoline is a freely-traded commodity product with strict specifications. Everyone makes the same basic stuff--if any company deviated materially from the published specs, either their gasoline would run poorly in many engines or they'd be afoul of environmental regulations. The only difference between the gasoline of Exxon, Mobil, Shell, Amoco, ARCO, Citgo, etc. is the additives package. This allows gasoline marketing companies to freely buy and sell physical gasoline volumes in whatever way makes the most business sense, without worrying about quality. Thus, the underlying gasoline is traded frequently between companies to minimize physical transportation costs. When you buy gasoline at a Shell station, the only thing you're buying that is guaranteed to be made by Shell is the additives package--the small amount of additional ingredients designed to do such things as stop engine knock and clean your fuel injectors and generally make your engine run better. <p>For instance, let's say that a Mobil station wants to sell gasoline in Connecticut. You'd think that it would get Mobil gasoline made in a Mobil refinery, right? Wrong. Mobil, with the recent sale of the Paulsboro, NJ refinery, no longer has any refining capacity in the Northeast. Yet it still has plenty of stations in the Northeast. Could it put gasoline into Colonial Pipeline and move it up from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast? Absolutely. But it wouldn't be cost effective. It is much cheaper for Mobil to buy gasoline from the Tosco refinery in New Jersey or another refinery that's physically located in the Northeast. So Mobil buys gasoline from some refinery in the Northeast--not a Mobil refinery--and has the gasoline piped to its terminal (the place where the big tanker trucks load up). The Mobil additives package is added at the terminal, and voila! Mobil sells the gasoline as Mobil-brand gasoline, even though the raw underlying gasoline was manufactured hundreds of miles from the nearest Mobil refinery. <p>I just used Mobil as an example. All of the major oil companies do the same thing. Depending on the company and your location, it's entirely likely that you are buying someone else's raw gasoline with only that company's additives added. Shell utilizes physical trades just like everyone else, so that Shell gasoline you bought may or may not have actually been manufactured in a Shell refinery. Either Shell bought a bad batch or they made a bad batch (unlikely, but possible), or it got contaminated somewhere during the delivery process from refinery to terminal to station to your fuel tank (much more likely). The Shell station may have some contamination problem, or maybe the tanker truck that services it was contaminated. And certainly there might be some other problem causing the smell.<p>By all means, if you're having problems with that Shell gasoline, buy gasoline at a different company's station or at least a different Shell station. But the underlying gasoline will be manufactured to the same specs no matter what company's station you patronize. <p>I realize that this doesn't help much, but I wanted to explain how the industry works and try to dispel any notions that Shell is consciously producing and selling higher-sulfur gasoline than any other company. <p>In case anyone's wondering, I don't work for Shell and never have. <p>

Steve S.

Initials are EB or SH<p>Then again, I could be just blowin smoke.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM

no clue about the gasoline business

Where can I get high octane (93 or better) gas in Northern Ca. bay area? (no more)

trifona

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