Home Heating Oil, Petrol & Road Diesel-the so called "best price" may be a RIP off?

JR Ewing

Ok so you need to buy some home heating oil for your house- so you go online or get the phone out and ring around for the "BEST" price- sounds simple doesn't it?................Ehhh NO!!

You need to put some fuel in the car so you go to the garage with the "BEST" price advertised on the forecourt- again simple?................Ehh NO!!

This is advice coming from someone who works within this industry on a daily basis and hopefully will help consumers to avoid rogue operators.

When you buy home heating oil or petrol/diesel price is only 33% of the bargain. Consumers have become absolutely fixated on price alone and it is this obsession which is being exploited!! By the way the other 67% of the transaction is made up of volume & fuel quality/components and it is in these areas where people are being RIPPED OFF!

Most people are aware of the process where agri fuel is "washed" to remove the marker dye and then retailing it as road diesel- but that is only the tip of the ice berg in terms of the fraudlent practises which are being conducted by rogue operators within the industry. The following should also open peoples eyes:

For example the difference between the cheapest and most expensive quotes for home heating oil would typically be no more than €20-25 and in general most reputable suppliers would be within €10 of each other as kerosene is a low margin product. Now all the quotes you get are based on the volume requested i.e. 500 or perhaps 1,000 litres- how can you be sure the ACTUAL volume which delivered to your tank? The truck meter you might say? What if the truck meter is calibrated incorrectly either intentionally or not? If the "cheapest" supplier left you 50 litres short then was the best deal with the supplier with what looked the most expensive price? Ehh yes!

Let's even say the truck meter is calibrated correctly- how can you be sure that the driver hasn't had you ticket in the meter from the delivery before and puts 50 litres back in the truck before running the remainder of the volume ordered into your tank? Net result- is you get 50 litres less than what you bargained for?! Could this happen....ehhh yes!

Another pointer which should ring alarm bells is that the main importers in to Ireland are ESSO/Teaxco/TOP/TOPAZ/Morris/Connoco Phillips- how can smaller suppliers who have to buy their supply from these importers then "appear" to turn around and sell it for less than the importer?
http://www.nsai.ie/Special-Pages/News/Petrol-Station-Prosecuted-for-Non-Compliance-by-NS.aspx

Another "trick" which could be adopted allowing suppliers to offer cut prices is to smuggle kerosene from Northern Ireland into The Republic. Again this is illegal but could be used to promote low prices as duty rates in The UK are lower then in Ireland. This practice is anecdotally rampant in border areas but is also possible in every county.

Other potential scams are:

• using alcohol/ethanol to "stretch" petrol. If the pumps in these stations are correct then is the quality of the fuel supplied good? NO! http://www.argus.ie/news/new-sample-test-helps-ensure-fuel-is-legitimate-3121714.html

• using rapeseed oil or other bio diesel (which is cheaper than correctly refined road diesel which already has a bio diesel content) to "stretch" road diesel- again the quality of the product being supplied is inferior. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_mix_diesel_and_Biodiesel_in_the_same_tank

Having been in the business for over 20 years it is actually scary to outline what some suppliers are prepared to do for profit. Distributors & stations have sprung up like mushrooms and quote often below cost prices to gain a foothold in the business as PRICE is the only thing that anyone seems interested in.

I hope having read this thread that everyone will think twice before blindly looking at the price before considering all the other aspects of what they are getting. Just remember that when you buy home heating oil, petrol or diesel you are buying something you cannot see and it is difficult to quantify so be very careful!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15482349

The above article outlines suspicions in The UK and while the meter calibrations turned out to be correct (after the Office of Fair Trading had written to distributors in advance to let them know they were coming- giving ample time for calibration correction!!). The inspectors also neglected to check or verify the fuel quality or delivery procedures used which could also make a massive difference.

The gain are potentially huge which is what attracts the rogues. For example-

Kerosene is valued at approx 90c per litre retail today so if each delivery is left 50 litres "short" this translates to €45 per delivery so any agent with 8million litres of kerosene customers could profit to the tune of approx €400,000.

BEWARE any price which looks out of step with branded international importers & suppliers- how can a small local distributor sell cheaper than the company extracting the bloody oil out of the ground?? MMmmm I wonder?!

jprboy

JR Ewing wrote: »

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

Other potential scams are:

• using alcohol/ethanol to "stretch" petrol. If the pumps in these stations are correct then is the quality of the fuel supplied good? NO! http://www.argus.ie/news/new-sample-test-helps-ensure-fuel-is-legitimate-3121714.html

• using rapeseed oil or other bio diesel (which is cheaper than correctly refined road diesel which already has a bio diesel content) to "stretch" road diesel- again the quality of the product being supplied is inferior. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_mix_diesel_and_Biodiesel_in_the_same_tank

.........

Interesting.......

Am curious so as to your opinions on the following which are taken from http://applegreen.ie/fuels

I mainly get my fuel (petrol & diesel) in Applegreen, by the way, and haven't noticed any problems.

All of our petrol is E5, with a mix of 5% ethanol to 95% petrol. The use of E5 in place of standard petrol, decreases carbon emissions by 3.4%, and the product can be used in all current petrol engines and doesn’t affect the engine warranty.

All of our diesel contains a mix of 5% FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) to 95% standard diesel. This B5 blend of standard fuel and biomass helps reduce carbon emissions and is suitable for use in all diesel engines.

JR Ewing

@JPRBOY

There is no problem with E5 Petrol or even road diesel with 5% FAME (although there have been problems with this diesel particularly from Whitegate). Ethanol & biodiesel are constituent parts of the production/blending process of petrol & diesel and legitimately so.

Where the problem arises is where "operators" increase the percentage of ethanol/biodiesel above these limits. I know of cases where 20%+ of the blend has been found in samples- this doesn't sound like much but the full retail margin on petrol or diesel is approx 3.5-5% so by increasing the cheaper biodiesel/ethanol content by 5% can result in an increase in profits to 10%-12% i.e almost treble. BUT this also increases the risk of damage to engines particularly direct fuel injection engines.

As it goes I personally would rate Applegreen a bona fide and reputable supplier. The company was founded by former UK Oil Company executives who run a "Ryanair" type set up with fuel being sold at the lowest possible margin with the hope of the forecourt shops making money to gain profitability. It is a high risk strategy as there are times when they are selling fuel at wholesale cost rates. As far as I am aware they source supply only from the main importers so their fuel should be safe.

Hope this answers your question.

sligo camper

Mmm I was wondering about the cost of Kerosene...for 20 litre size drums varies from 96 cent per litre to 1.06 per litre....in the space of a number of miles...should i be wary?

homer simpson

jprboy wrote: »

Interesting.......

Am curious so as to your opinions on the following which are taken from http://applegreen.ie/fuels

I mainly get my fuel (petrol & diesel) in Applegreen, by the way, and haven't noticed any problems.

All of our petrol is E5, with a mix of 5% ethanol to 95% petrol. The use of E5 in place of standard petrol, decreases carbon emissions by 3.4%, and the product can be used in all current petrol engines and doesn’t affect the engine warranty.

All of our diesel contains a mix of 5% FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) to 95% standard diesel. This B5 blend of standard fuel and biomass helps reduce carbon emissions and is suitable for use in all diesel engines.

A bit off topic but,we have stopped buying our fuel in applegreen since before Christmas, we now get 45 extra miles per tank.

jprboy

homer simpson wrote: »

A bit off topic but,we have stopped buying our fuel in applegreen since before Christmas, we now get 45 extra miles per tank.

I must try this myself and see what results I get.

Where are you getting the fuel now and how much more per litre are you paying?

homer simpson

jprboy wrote: »

I must try this myself and see what results I get.

Where are you getting the fuel now and how much more per litre are you paying?

Local Topaz, 0.5 cent per litre more

Jack breen

I had to laugh at the posters username and the thread subject..:D