[PAFirefighter11]

I know we all have our personal favorite brands for our street cars. I personally use Sunoco or Shell. I know back in the day there were huge differences in which brand you go with. These days it's basically down to the additives, etc., though I did find an interesting post on another forum:

I've designed oil refinery processes for 20 years and there is a big difference. Any of the major brands like Shell, Exxon, BP, or Chevron are OK. Some of the off brands are OK and some are not, but I would never put any of the secondary brands in my car.

There is very little difference in the major brands apart from the additives that are blended in. The vast majority of gas is transported from the refinery to local distribution points via pipelines. In several areas of the country several refiners will use a common pipeline to transport their products to remote storage facilities. So brands such as shell, BP, exxon, etc are mixed in the pipeline. There are agreements as to the quality of the gas that goes into these common lines. If Chevron ,for example, puts a 100 gallons of fuel in the pipeline from the refinery at Pascagoula, MS they are entitled to remove a 100 gallons from a distribution point in Sioux City, IA even though their fuel never went to Iowa. So even if you buy shell gas it may have been made by Chevron. The company specific additives are added at the remote distribution points and is the only thing different between major brands.

These distribution agreements are why it is possible for shell (or any other refiner) to sell fuel in places where it would otherwise be uneconomical because of transportation costs.

Most (but not all) of the secondary refiners are not part of this distribution agreement because their fuel does not meet the quality standards.

Has anyone come upon any studies showing testing from different brands? I'm sure someone with some scientific knowledge thought it would be a good idea to do a study like this. All I can find in my 5 mins of searching are personal opinions and no factual statistics.

Thanks...