Supermarket Petrol V. Name Brand Petrol

[johnny37]

Friend who is a retired petrol station owner swears supermarket petrol damages your engine due to the additives they put in it.
Anyone know if this is true?

[HansUrbancka]

I could be completely wrong. However, it is my understanding that Petrol Additives are for the benefit of older cars that needed 'Leaded Petrol'

As an aside.....In the days when we had Petrol Pump Attendants and it was almost customary to buy shots of additives along with the fuel (eg. Redex), there was a petrol advertised on TV with the slogan..'Put a Tiger in your tank'... Well there was a friend of mine who requested that his car's tank was filled along with two shots of TSR.
The young attendant enquired. . ."What is TSR" and was answered.."
Tiger Shiot remover". ☺☺☺

Hans.

[woofgang]

I can tell you what I know..... Which is that it used to be the case (might still be) that sometimes supermarket chains would purchase petrol on the spot market....which is to say they would buy a small tanker (ship) load or a storage tank of refined fuel on the open market. Usually in the UK, the purchase would be from Holland. The ship would come to the UK and unload the fuel into rented tank space at a refinery where it could have additives put in or not, have the statutory tests done, pay the duty and tax and then be delivered to their stations in rented bowsers (road tankers) At other times, they will buy UK refined petrol. Additives are put in according to the retail customer's requirements at point of sale. So....its not so much that supermarket fuel is better or worse than big brand fuel, its that you don't know what you are getting apart from that it meets the UK minimum standard.

[EDDIE51]

Since 2003 when due to North Sea oil we were net exporters of fuel we now have to import nearly 1/2 of the petrol and diesel we need and the % is growing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/10202929/Britain-imports-almost-half-of-fossil-fuels-from-abroad.html
This is due to the decline in north sea production and not building new refineries. Most of the imported fuel come from Holland,
Leaving the EU without a deal will mean import tax on fuel! 15% rise in price?

[EDDIE51]

^ should say petrol comes from mainly from Holland but diesel comes mainly from Norway. Other alternative is to import direct from the middle east, Qatar, but what ever we do it is going to cost more. Soon we are going to have to start to shut down and cap the North sea wells and that is going to cost £billions, and even more expensive fuel.

[woofgang]

I don't know if there still is, but in around 2005, there was a world excess of refining capacity even with the growing demand for product.