Topaz "Clean" fuel - sh!t3!!

Captain Slow IRL

I used to be a faithful customer to Shell and up until recently, Topaz but after extensive testing:D have moved over to Texaco. While driving, I noticed my car had lost a lot of poke and consumption had gone up slightly - the poke was what really concerned me though: usually it started to pick up around 3k rpm, but I was getting worried when it was still gutless beyond 4k. I started flipping at the impending costs, worrying the coil or air-mass was on the way out - it was only fully serviced recently so I had the simple things ruled out. On my way to work one morning, I stopped off to get petrol at the local texaco, which also happened to be on my way to work. On the way home that evening, I'd noticed the car had gotten more of it's pep back - I've been using texaco ever since and it's been running as sweet as a nut.

I'd had the OH (she drives a diesel) converted to Topaz a long time ago, when they actually sold petrol and not watered down water. I'd told her to try a tank from another station to see any difference - she ended up using Maxol and noticed the fuel consumption had improved a good bit - about 40 miles out of a tank.

Is Topaz's so-called "clean" fuel just plain sh!t or does cleanliness come at the cost of efficiency and power?!

Typewriter

For me I always use Maxol or if I cant find one then Texaco is the next best thing.

But what ever you do steer clear of Tesco value petrol. You car and wallet will thank you.

Atomic Pineapple

Maxol or Texaco for me too, The ITR also loses some poke on Topaz petrol

Vain

Petrol is petrol, doesn't make a difference where you get it. I find no difference.

Captain Slow IRL

There's only 1 maxol station where I live, and it's in a cnut of a spot - busy main road and on a bend, so I always steered clear. But if it keeps her happy..........:)

A fellow co-worker was cursing tesco diesel as well, the only thing that made it worthwile was the price after doing the shopping.

Zonda999

Interesting this. A couple of days ago, i filled up at a local petrol station(No franchise). The car seemed to do way more miles before the fuel light coming one again. I had had my doubts about topaz fuel for a while though. I might just go for texaco in future so

Tefral

99Octane maxol Petrol for my ITR, doesn't last quite as long as Ethanol is not as efficient as normal petrol but the poke out of the car makes it worth while...;)

Runs cooler in the engine too...

Captain Slow IRL

Bring back V-Power, worth every cent!

Atomic Pineapple

Captain Slow IRL wrote: »

Bring back V-Power, worth every cent!

V-Power here was just run of the mill 95octane petrol with some additives though?

As opposed to V-Power in the uk which was/is 99 octane proper petrol

Fishtits

Vain wrote: »

Petrol is petrol, doesn't make a difference where you get it. I find no difference.

Agreed.

Not into this E whatever soup Maxol are serving up though, drop in economy & perkiness IMHO. My opinion is completely subjective & may technically be rubbish, but I have avoided since.

Each to their own.

AugustusMaximus

Personally I think it was sad to see the Shell and Statoil names leave the market place. Topaz just doesn't cut it for me.

How long has it been since BP has service stations in Ireland.

Tefral

draffodx wrote: »

V-Power here was just run of the mill 95octane petrol with some additives though?

As opposed to V-Power in the uk which was/is 99 octane proper petrol

you are correct, i used to work for shell, and the additives were so low in PPM that it would have made no difference.

Tefral

Fishtits wrote: »

Agreed.

Not into this E whatever soup Maxol are serving up though, drop in economy & perkiness IMHO. My opinion is completely subjective & may technically be rubbish, but I have avoided since.

Each to their own.

E5 has been dyno proven to increase power. However this has mostly been tested on Jap cars which incidentaly have self learning ECU's

Captain Slow IRL

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

Personally I think it was sad to see the Shell and Statoil names leave the market place. Topaz just doesn't cut it for me.

How long has it been since BP has service stations in Ireland.

I wonder if the crap out at Belmullet with Shell to Sea had anything to do with the name change - or was it new owners?

AugustusMaximus

Captain Slow IRL wrote: »

I wonder if the crap out at Belmullet with Shell to Sea had anything to do with the name change - or was it new owners?

Topaz bought Shell out in 2005.

Atomic Pineapple

Vain wrote: »

Petrol is petrol, doesn't make a difference where you get it. I find no difference.

Fishtits wrote: »

Agreed.

Not into this E whatever soup Maxol are serving up though, drop in economy & perkiness IMHO. My opinion is completely subjective & may technically be rubbish, but I have avoided since.

Each to their own.

do you not believe you can get proper bad petrol then?

a garage in my local town recently went from being texaco supplied to an unbranded petrol station being supplied by an unbranded tanker, petrol was about 5cent per litre cheaper than everywhere else but I know of 3 people who has serious engine trouble because of the quality of the petrol

Tropheus

I don't understand how Topaz get away with their advertising. More MPG? I think not.

AFAIK, Tesco use several sources for their fuel. I have seen Statoil tankers delivering to Tesco in the past. That was when Statoil were still around.

I drive a diesel and buy from many different branded and unbranded stations and have never noticed any difference in performance after a fill up.

Vain

draffodx wrote: »

do you not believe you can get proper bad petrol then?

a garage in my local town recently went from being texaco supplied to an unbranded petrol station being supplied by an unbranded tanker, petrol was about 5cent per litre cheaper than everywhere else but I know of 3 people who has serious engine trouble because of the quality of the petrol

O ya i agree with what you say there, my town has a same petrol station no brand, getting supplied by an unbranded tanker at 3am. Also heard reports of bad petrol. I just can see any difference in all the main brand stations, I seem to get the same mpg all the time and no power difference, well my car is only 1.4 so ya:D

Duckjob

green_jesus wrote: »

For me I always use Maxol or if I cant find one then Texaco is the next best thing.

But what ever you do steer clear of Tesco value petrol. You car and wallet will thank you.

+1

For a while I used to go out of my way to get to Tesco for petrol. Then one week, I decided to try out V-Power, and the constrast was remarkable - the car seemed to go forever on one tank, whereas it had been gulping the Tesco stuff. It also revved smooth as silk on the VPower.

Don't know what Tesco do with their petrol but their low prices are a definite false economy IMO.

Max_Damage

I don't give a shít what petrol company I use, once they are cheap.

tuxy

Duckjob wrote: »

+1

For a while I used to go out of my way to get to Tesco for petrol. Then one week, I decided to try out V-Power, and the constrast was remarkable - the car seemed to go forever on one tank, whereas it had been gulping the Tesco stuff. It also revved smooth as silk on the VPower.

Great stuff Duckjob, now where do I get this magical VPower petrol?

old boy

my w201 was addicted to topaz, i moved to either indy or esso or a mix of both, a massive difference in the fuel consumption.

Duckjob

tuxy wrote: »

Great stuff Duckjob, now where do I get this magical VPower petrol?

I dunno, maybe try here :pac:

Max_Damage

Duckjob wrote: »

I dunno, maybe try here :pac:

................

Whatever

zilog_jones

I tried V-Power once, the car ran great but got awful mileage out of it compared to anything else. Emo (Clare St.) were often the cheapest in Limerick city, and it showed - my car seemed pretty rough and fuel economy was nothing special.

Haven't noticed Topaz to be any different from previous Shell or Statoil petrol, or any other typical unleaded. Texaco (with Techron) seems grand, not sure if it's any better economy-wise - I used to work out mileage all the time but got lazy recently

Most normal petrol cars are only designed to run on 95 RON (often 91 RON too but not sold here) so in most cases you will see no performance increase in using the 99 RON E5 stuff unless you have a high performance car. Some people say pretty much all unleaded sold in Ireland is E5 now, not sure TBH.

There was a thread here a while ago about people using somewhere around an E30 mix (30% ethanol, 70% petrol) in unmodified cars with reports of improved mileage. Apparently it's safe enough - anyonehad any luck with this?

Bandara

Max_Damage wrote: »

I don't give a shít what petrol company I use, once they are cheap.

the only way to be, unless you particulary like a station (quality of service etc) then always buy the cheapest fuel, there in no difference between fuel in esso/topaz/maxol etc etc etc

it all comes from the same depot and is delivered by the same logistics company

Bandara

draffodx wrote: »

do you not believe you can get proper bad petrol then?

a garage in my local town recently went from being texaco supplied to an unbranded petrol station being supplied by an unbranded tanker, petrol was about 5cent per litre cheaper than everywhere else but I know of 3 people who has serious engine trouble because of the quality of the petrol

No station is buying 'bad petrol' in order to sell it cheaply.

As for the 3 people who had engine trouble I'd take these comments with a huge mountain of salt. People always try to blame engine failure etc on the last place they got fuel from.

Its very very simple to determine if the fuel is dirty/has water in it or not, it takes about 10 seconds. If this station was selling bad fuel he would be out of business in about 2 days as he'd have thousands of cars destroyed and suing him for new engines.

Your fuel is either bad for all cars or not bad at all, it doesn't select certain vehicles to breakdown in.

The fact that the station is unbranded is irrelevant, they are still buying fuel off the Maxol, Esso, Topazs etc, they just choose to not enter a licence agreement in order to allow them to buy at the best rates without restrictions each time they need a delivery. Its the most popular form of operating amoung the fuel discounters

The unbranded tanker is loading out of the eaxct same gantry in the docks that EVERY single other fuel company uses

Bandara

and finally

anyone who belives Topaz clean fuel or the Maxol super-mc-duper E5 stuff is any different to ANY fuel in Any other station is living in dream land.

Davidth88

Guys
My understanding is there only two petrol importers/wholesalers in this country. All the petrol comes from the same tanks from what I gather .
( by the way this duolopoy situation is partly why petrol prices remain so high when the oil price drops , believe me the garages are making virtually nothing )

I think all this BS about different petrol being ' better ' or worse is just that BS.

If you get a bad tank from a garage , I imagine it's down to their tanks being dirty or something .

For example do Applegreen or Tesco refine petrol , no , nor do I imagine do Topaz

I buy from a local garage , who is usually about 1c more than Applegreen around the corner , why .. because the guy is friendly and local . However if the difference was more than 1-2c , guess what , Applegreen here I come. ( I only use 15-20 euro per week anyway )

There is however price fixing going on , the perfect example I can think of was Killarney where petrol was always VERY expensive. Tesco moved in , and guess what suddenly all the garages that ' had ' to charge well over the going rate suddenly dropped their prices to match Tesco .

Mr Benevolent

I wonder have any of these claims been verified? Seems unlikely that petrol could really have such a variation in composition. Personally I think it's mainly wishful thinking.

cpoh1

Hammertime wrote: »

the only way to be, unless you particulary like a station (quality of service etc) then always buy the cheapest fuel, there in no difference between fuel in esso/topaz/maxol etc etc etc

it all comes from the same depot and is delivered by the same logistics company

Hammertime wrote: »

and finally

anyone who belives Topaz clean fuel or the Maxol super-mc-duper E5 stuff is any different to ANY fuel in Any other station is living in dream land.

Hammertime you are wrong!

It might all come from the same depot but just like a pub you get different taps!

Only topaz branded fuel stations get the topaz additives injected at truck loading at the gantries. 3rd party fuel companies that use topaz oil terminals get standard unleaded with no additives. Ethanol is also blended at the gantry and only topaz stations get it at topaz terminals and maxol etc. at their own terminals.

Despite what people are saying, the additives do make a difference and as an aside topaz use the same additives that the old shell used. Only difference is the trading name!

The fuel comes into the country the same, its how its treated at the middle point that is the difference. Looking at the state of some of the oil terminals in this country owned by certian brands I wouldnt touch their fuels at the pumps.

--Kaiser--

I always use Maxol E5 if I can, get more miles and the car runs better, my car was designed to run on Japanese high octane fuel however

Sully

Hammertime wrote: »

and finally

anyone who belives Topaz clean fuel or the Maxol super-mc-duper E5 stuff is any different to ANY fuel in Any other station is living in dream land.

So if you and everyone else in that line of business knows it, why sit back and let them? Doesn't the AA support Topaz clean fuel?!

cpoh1

Sully wrote: »

So if you and everyone else in that line of business knows it, why sit back and let them? Doesn't the AA support Topaz clean fuel?!

He might run a petrol station but he has no clue what goes on at the terminal judging by that post! I would take that opinion with a massive dollap of salt.

Matt Simis

cpoh1 wrote: »

He might run a petrol station but he has no clue what goes on at the terminal judging by that post! I would take that opinion with a massive dollap of salt.

And am I the only one that sees a commercial bias here? Its in his interest to convince everyone that the fuel his competitors sell is exactly the same as his, whether it is or not.
Only one fuel is sold as 99.2 Octane, thats Maxol. Even if BrandX (or "everything" else) is 5% ethanol, we dont know what grade of fuel its cut with, its effective octane rating could be different. Just consisting of 5% Ethanol isnt enough info to actually know what it will perform like.

Fishtits wrote: »

Agreed.
Not into this E whatever soup Maxol are serving up though, drop in economy & perkiness IMHO. My opinion is completely subjective & may technically be rubbish, but I have avoided since.
Each to their own.

E5 / E85 are no mystery fuels. E5 may or may not deliver better MPG depending on how mundane or interesting your engine is. Without a doubt for performance engines E5 is the fuel of choice. 99.2 Octane for the price of 95, you'd have to be clinically retarded to buy anything else.

r3nu4l

Duckjob wrote: »

Don't know what Tesco do with their petrol but their low prices are a definite false economy IMO.

Well I've been using BP, Shell, Tesco and the occasional unbranded garage (in East Anglia) for petrol with my old car and diesel with my new car and can honestly say that I've never noticed one bit of difference between any of them for power or consumption.

Also Tesco in my part of England is no cheaper than Shell, unless I spend £50 or more on my shopping, then I get 5p off per litre but even that promotion is only around every couple of months.

claiva

I used to work for Topaz, and for many years in Shell before they were sold to ION Equity (the company that own Topaz).
Topaz had to buy their raw material for a set number of years from Shell after the sale. I think that deal has now expired.
The additives are what make the grade, there's no question about that.

My theory is that when you think you have pumped a litre into your car, the actual amount varies substantially from forecourt to forecourt.

There is NO quality control or government testing in Ireland for this.
In the UK, they have a weights and measures board who regularly test at forecourts around the country. We have no such procedures here.

Part of my job entailed Tank Gauging systems and let me tell you, when a Tank is filled up with 10,000 litres of fule, many more litres of fuel are pumped into cars from that tank........go figure !!!!!!!

fryup

just on a side note - do does fuel additives (redex, stp) make any difference??

Bandara

Matt Simis wrote: »

And am I the only one that sees a commercial bias here? Its in his interest to convince everyone that the fuel his competitors sell is exactly the same as his, whether it is or not.
Only one fuel is sold as 99.2 Octane, thats Maxol. Even if BrandX (or "everything" else) is 5% ethanol, we dont know what grade of fuel its cut with, its effective octane rating could be different. Just consisting of 5% Ethanol isnt enough info to actually know what it will perform like.

yes you are, I have NEVER stated what fuel company banner I operate under, I have never advertised one company or another, and most importantly selling fuel is so irrelevant to me that I don't give a damn if I never sell a drop, its all about the shop, the only reason I sell fuel is to get you into the shop.

Fuel is a complete nightmare product to operate

Bandara

cpoh1 wrote: »

He might run a petrol station but he has no clue what goes on at the terminal judging by that post! I would take that opinion with a massive dollap of salt.

and you my friend have no clue of what goes on with them tankers of fuel after they leave the terminal judging by that post.

You really think that Maxol fuel only gets delivered to Maxol? That the Topaz mega-superduper-bestest-ever fuel only gets put into Topaz stations?

I REGULARLY take deliveries of fuel from Applegreen, Topaz etc etc tankers.

Portway have to get rid of a load on their trucks somehow, and seeing as they only really deliver full loads what do you imagine happens when they have 40,000 litres of UNL on it way to a station with only 24k liters of storage?

That other 16k has to go somewhere. Anywhere.

Cookie_Monster

ksimpson wrote: »

AFAIK, Tesco use several sources for their fuel. I have seen Statoil tankers delivering to Tesco in the past. That was when Statoil were still around.

Tesco UK use several sources, Tesco Ireland use Statoil (now Topaz) for all their fuel

Cookie_Monster

Hammertime wrote: »

yes you are, I have NEVER stated what fuel company banner I operate under, I have never advertised one company or another, and most importantly selling fuel is so irrelevant to me that I don't give a damn if I never sell a drop, its all about the shop, the only reason I sell fuel is to get you into the shop.

Fuel is a complete nightmare product to operate

I agree with this, Hammertime has alway tried to be as open, honest and helpful as possible on here, particularly in petrol/garage related matters.

cpoh1

Hammertime wrote: »

and you my friend have no clue of what goes on with them tankers of fuel after they leave the terminal judging by that post.

You really think that Maxol fuel only gets delivered to Maxol? That the Topaz mega-superduper-bestest-ever fuel only gets put into Topaz stations?

I REGULARLY take deliveries of fuel from Applegreen, Topaz etc etc tankers.

Portway have to get rid of a load on their trucks somehow, and seeing as they only really deliver full loads what do you imagine happens when they have 40,000 litres of UNL on it way to a station with only 24k liters of storage?

That other 16k has to go somewhere. Anywhere.

Considering i was the head process and automation engineer that built the new topaz terminal in galway over the last 24 months let me enlighten you.

The label on the truck is meaningless. Most of the trucks are 3rd party owned subcontracted by Topaz, maxol whatever. Topaz have very few of their own trucks and drivers. When a truck enters the terminal it swipes its card at the gate. It has the account information for that truck on its card. It goes to the staging area, creates its order specifying what fuel products it wants and for what stations. It then proceeds to the gantry where the accuload (the controller for the fuel delivery system) delivers the fuel to the truck. Here's the catch, if the fuel is going to a 3rd party vendor the fuel will be unadditised as we call it in the trade, i.e. the recipe selected by the accuload will not include additive injecting. This fuel is unprocessed and exactly as it came from the ship from the refinery. This is the fuel you are getting. topaz and maxol etc. stations would get additised and Ethanol injected blends that go to the topaz petrol stations.

The critical part also is that the trucks dont just fill their compartments because they have to bill someone before leaving the site, essentially these trucks fill to order so only leave the terminal with the exact quantity the end user (you the petrol station) requires. Its just not possible to get topaz branded fuel in non topaz branded stations.

Again the actual truck delivering it is meaningless. Im not trying to belittle you, im just trying to correct the misconceptions you have about the fuel you are getting and the general misnomers about the fuel industry in general.

JohnThomas09

Davidth88 wrote: »

Guys
My understanding is there only two petrol importers/wholesalers in this country. All the petrol comes from the same tanks from what I gather .
( by the way this duolopoy situation is partly why petrol prices remain so high when the oil price drops , believe me the garages are making virtually nothing )

I think all this BS about different petrol being ' better ' or worse is just that BS.

If you get a bad tank from a garage , I imagine it's down to their tanks being dirty or something .

For example do Applegreen or Tesco refine petrol , no , nor do I imagine do Topaz

I buy from a local garage , who is usually about 1c more than Applegreen around the corner , why .. because the guy is friendly and local . However if the difference was more than 1-2c , guess what , Applegreen here I come. ( I only use 15-20 euro per week anyway )

There is however price fixing going on , the perfect example I can think of was Killarney where petrol was always VERY expensive. Tesco moved in , and guess what suddenly all the garages that ' had ' to charge well over the going rate suddenly dropped their prices to match Tesco .

I couldnt agree more with this post.All of the distributors(Texaco,Topaz,Applegreens) get their fuel from Irelands Main depots: Derry,Dublin,Cork,Galway,they all get the same fuel from these depots.The only difference is the price,eg.if your buying a 100,000 litres a week you get it cheaper than someone buying 10,000 litres a week.They all get delivered in approved tankers,either their own tankers or independent hauliers.

The reason why some people may have had problems with their fuel is simply the condition the underground tanks at the station is in,if these tanks aren't cleaned regularly it can cause problems.

I would also agree with the concept of a Price Cartel.In my local town the two Petrol stations were charging the exact same for fuel for years,they use to be very expensive because the next station was miles away and they knew people would have to use them.Then a young lad opened a station nearby and started selling it at near cost price.It took all the custom from these stations,now both of these stations are in competition againist each other,big surprise.

Matt Simis

Hammertime wrote: »

yes you are, I have NEVER stated what fuel company banner I operate under, I have never advertised one company or another, and most importantly selling fuel is so irrelevant to me that I don't give a damn if I never sell a drop, its all about the shop, the only reason I sell fuel is to get you into the shop.

Instead of this kneejerk defensiveness, think for a second.
As the underdog you only have to discredit the major players to make your standing look better, whoever your are. That much is obvious. Its also quite clearly true that it helps your case to testify that your product (from a comparatively unknown brand) is the same as the "trusted" market leaders.
As you said, you need to sell Petrol (and convince joe public yours is as good as theirs or theirs is a bad as yours, works just as well) to get them into your shop to make your fat profit margin on milk and butter.

This is simple business and the posts you have made here, true or not, help your business enterprises.


On the whole every fuel is the same line you keep spewing, at some point Ill pick up an Ethanol Tester and check. It wont determine effective octane, but would be a start.
They arent expensive and if I ran a garage I would make it my business to know precisely what Im selling. Since you havent mentioned ever actually testing fuel and make statements based on the vinyl wrap on the truck, Im assuming you havent such a device and it concerns me.

cpoh1

JohnThomas09 wrote: »

I couldnt agree more with this post.All of the distributors(Texaco,Topaz,Applegreens) get their fuel from Irelands Main depots: Derry,Dublin,Cork,Galway,they all get the same fuel from these depots.The only difference is the price,eg.if your buying a 100,000 litres a week you get it cheaper than someone buying 10,000 litres a week.They all get delivered in approved tankers,either their own tankers or independent hauliers.

The reason why some people may have had problems with their fuel is simply the condition the underground tanks at the station is in,if these tanks are cleaned regularly it can cause problems.

I would also agree with the concept of a Price Cartel.Im local town the two Petrol stations were charging the exact same for fuel for years,they use to be very expensive because the next station was miles away and they knew people would have to use them.Then a young lad opened a station nearby and started selling it at near cost price.It took all the custom from these stations,now both of these stations are in competition againist each other,big surprise.

God i feel like im bashing my head against a wall :rolleyes:

for ther last time just because the stations get them from similar terminals DOES NOT mean the same fuel is going to the same stations. think of the pub analogy, you can go to a pub and order loads of different drinks!

Also maxol, chevron (texaco governing body) and topaz all have their own terminals typically. 3rd party fuel companies can usse any of these terminals but get billed accordingly and get lesser quality fuel.

Matt Simis

cpoh1 wrote: »

God i feel like im bashing my head against a wall :rolleyes:

for ther last time just because the stations get them from similar terminals DOES NOT mean the same fuel is going to the same stations. think of the pub analogy, you can go to a pub and order loads of different drinks!

Also maxol, chevron (texaco governing body) and topaz all have their own terminals typically. 3rd party fuel companies can usse any of these terminals but get billed accordingly and get lesser quality fuel.

Much like New Coke, its suits people to see conspiracies everywhere despite simpler and rational explanations such as yours.

Bandara

Matt Simis wrote: »

Instead of this kneejerk defensiveness, think for a second.
As the underdog you only have to discredit the major players to make your standing look better, whoever your are. That much is obvious. Its also quite clearly true that it helps your case to testify that your product (from a comparatively unknown brand) is the same as the "trusted" market leaders.
As you said, you need to sell Petrol (and convince joe public yours is as good as theirs or theirs is a bad as yours, works just as well) to get them into your shop to make your fat profit margin on milk and butter.

This is simple business and the posts you have made here, true or not, help your business enterprises.


On the whole every fuel is the same line you keep spewing, at some point Ill pick up an Ethanol Tester and check. It wont determine effective octane, but would be a start.
They arent expensive and if I ran a garage I would make it my business to know precisely what Im selling. Since you havent mentioned ever actually testing fuel and make statements based on the vinyl wrap on the truck, Im assuming you havent such a device and it concerns me.

sorry but you've completely lost me here, why do you assume that my fuel is an unknown brand and that I am 'the underdog' ????? Both the fuel brandings I operate under are very common, I'm not operating under some small players like GreatGas or Amber etc

I don 't need to convince joe public anything about fuel, Joe Public shops where its cheapest that is their only concern, if I want to get Joe Public in the door I'll just drop all my prices by 3 cent today and I'll sell 35k litres per site today.

and I fail to see how me posting on a specialist motor forum read by .01% of the motoring public will increase my business, I am posting here as a total anon with no agenda whatsoever. If I wanted to steer people in my direction I could just put a tag at the end of my posts with my locations and current prices, and ever give a 1c off a litre to boardsies - I have no interest in gaining customers via a motors forum. I am posting here as a petrol head, not a petrol station owner.

I respct your opinion, but I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one Matt.

JohnThomas09

cpoh1 wrote: »

God i feel like im bashing my head against a wall :rolleyes:

for ther last time just because the stations get them from similar terminals DOES NOT mean the same fuel is going to the same stations. think of the pub analogy, you can go to a pub and order loads of different drinks!

Also maxol, chevron (texaco governing body) and topaz all have their own terminals typically. 3rd party fuel companies can usse any of these terminals but get billed accordingly and get lesser quality fuel.

i think you may have recieved a blow to the head alright.You can go into a Pub and buy loads of different drinks but if you order a Pint of Guiness,you get a pint of Guiness no matter where in the country you order it.Same goes for a litre of Petrol,ive been to depots in both Dublin and Galway,the only reason Topaz has their own depot here is so they can control where their fuel is going.I know branded stations all over the country that get their fuel supplied to them by independent hauliers.Next time im going to one of the main depots i have space in the car if you want to join me and ill show you how it works.

Atomic Pineapple

My cars performance and MPG increases or decreases dependent on what brand of fuel I put in my car, simple as.

If all the fuel was exactly the same surely there would never be any difference?

Bandara

cpoh1 wrote: »

Considering i was the head process and automation engineer that built the new topaz terminal in galway over the last 24 months let me enlighten you.

The label on the truck is meaningless. Most of the trucks are 3rd party owned subcontracted by Topaz, maxol whatever. Topaz have very few of their own trucks and drivers. When a truck enters the terminal it swipes its card at the gate. It has the account information for that truck on its card. It goes to the staging area, creates its order specifying what fuel products it wants and for what stations. It then proceeds to the gantry where the accuload (the controller for the fuel delivery system) delivers the fuel to the truck. Here's the catch, if the fuel is going to a 3rd party vendor the fuel will be unadditised as we call it in the trade, i.e. the recipe selected by the accuload will not include additive injecting. This fuel is unprocessed and exactly as it came from the ship from the refinery. This is the fuel you are getting. topaz and maxol etc. stations would get additised and Ethanol injected blends that go to the topaz petrol stations.

The critical part also is that the trucks dont just fill their compartments because they have to bill someone before leaving the site, essentially these trucks fill to order so only leave the terminal with the exact quantity the end user (you the petrol station) requires. Its just not possible to get topaz branded fuel in non topaz branded stations.

Again the actual truck delivering it is meaningless. Im not trying to belittle you, im just trying to correct the misconceptions you have about the fuel you are getting and the general misnomers about the fuel industry in general.

and I'm not trying to belittle you either, you are obviously well versed in the Galway terminal and how it operates etc, my fuel comes via the Dublin Terminal so I have no experience whatsoever with Galway, I can only speak in the area I'm familiar with.

As an recent example last thursday I received a phone call from Portway asking me would I do them a favour and take a deliver of 14k derv that was destined for a different branded station to mine, upon arriving at that station it was discovered that the operator was on stop with the fuel company and was on a cod basis only - which the owner could not make payment for. The fuel was then taken away and I was phoned to ask if i could take it, which I did. So I have a mix of my own blend and the blend of another large companies fuel in my 40000 derv tank.

Which kind of makes your argument that its impossible for blends to go to other branded sites a bit redundant. The undelivered fuel is not delivered back to the terminal, and the days of having various holding depots around the company to offload excess product are a thing of the past.

Another regular (2 weekly or so) occurance is the fuel is ordered by a site and upon arrival they do not have the capacity to take the amount they ordered. So again the haulage company need to offload one or two pots of blended fuel somewhere. They ring me and ask if I can take it (as I sell large amounts and am lucky enough to have very large capacities in my sites), so again I have another companies blended clean fuel etc etc in my tanks.

Your terminal setup might work perfectly on plans, but in reality things are very different at the front end, with so many direct debits being bounced and garages going to the wall fuel companies will bend any rule to sell product.