Supermarket Fuel, Facts Please

[warch]

Twenty odd years ago when I worked on a farm I remember people saying that red diesel was cheap sub standard stuff. Even then I wondered why farmers and construction companies were happy to put st fuel in something that cost the same as a Ferrari/reasonable sized house.

[TooMany2cvs]

coldel said:

Deesee said:

Tesco fuel turnover is 11/12% of turnover. Say 6 billion pa, profit who knows.? They won’t say..

Shell and BP clear that in opperating profits most years.

Nope its Tesco, bigger than both Shell and BP last year
https://www.statista.com/statistics/312071/motor-f...
Its no surprise really, supermarkets have the locations, scale, better supply chains and leverage to get cheap land rents etc. so can certainly cut costs in many ways BP and Shell cannot.

But BP and Shell do much more - refining, industrial supply etc - so I can believe their profits may well be higher. Not to mention that they're globals in the way Tesco isn't.

[coldel]

TooMany2cvs said:

But BP and Shell do much more - refining, industrial supply etc - so I can believe their profits may well be higher. Not to mention that they're globals in the way Tesco isn't.

But the point was around the idea that Tesco would not be checking the fuel they supply as well as say BP or Shell, to which I responded that given the sheer scale of Tesco's fuel business, I am pretty confident they do and highlighted that in terms of forecourt sales they out sell on volume vs Shell and BP. The debate was in no way to do with global profits, other industries etc. it was commenting that given Tesco sell tens of billions of pounds of the stuff, comparing their fuel business quality control to that of a category manager of a meat supplier was not really comparable!

[neelyp]

TooMany2cvs said:

But BP and Shell do much more - refining, industrial supply etc - so I can believe their profits may well be higher. Not to mention that they're globals in the way Tesco isn't.

BP and Shell have no refining capability in the UK.

[clockworks]

I've used supermarket fuel pretty much exclusively for over 30 years. For 20 years I was doing 30-40k miles a year in company cars that were mine for 3 or 4 years, so all went well over 100k. Most of the fuel came from Tesco. For the past 8 years I've been running my own cars, including a couple of Porsches, a couple of 6-pot BMWs (1 petrol, 1 diesel) and an early Cooper S. I nearly always use Sainsbury's fuel now, but sometimes Tesco - whichever is the cheapest taking into account discount vouchers and loyalty points.

Over that time, I must have clocked up close to a million miles. I have had absolutely zero engine-related issues. Plenty of electrical problems, a few chassis/suspension/body problems, but no engine/exhaust/induction problems at all.

All the cars have been filled with regular fuel, except the Boxster, where I alternated between regular and super.

[Ares]

neelyp said:

TooMany2cvs said:

But BP and Shell do much more - refining, industrial supply etc - so I can believe their profits may well be higher. Not to mention that they're globals in the way Tesco isn't.

BP and Shell have no refining capability in the UK.

But they still have refining capability adding to global profits.

[TooMany2cvs]

Ares said:

neelyp said:

TooMany2cvs said:

But BP and Shell do much more - refining, industrial supply etc - so I can believe their profits may well be higher. Not to mention that they're globals in the way Tesco isn't.

BP and Shell have no refining capability in the UK.

But they still have refining capability adding to global profits.

<nods>
And when the comment being replied to was...

Deesee said:

Tesco fuel turnover is 11/12% of turnover. Say 6 billion pa, profit who knows.? They won’t say..

Shell and BP clear that in opperating profits most years.

[littleredrooster]

mick8186 said:

Supermarket Fuel, Facts Please

Facts? On PH? Is this man serious? You may - if you're lucky - get one scientific, reasoned reply...



...but I'm betting on at least 12 pages of opinions with no backup or relation to facts.

Me? I'll merely point to the fact (...that word again...) that there's only 6 refineries making the stuff, so it's unlikely that a fuel station in (say) North Wales would get a specialised delivery from (say) Grangemouth.

Draw your own conclusions.

[coldel]

TooMany2cvs said:

Ares said:

neelyp said:

TooMany2cvs said:

But BP and Shell do much more - refining, industrial supply etc - so I can believe their profits may well be higher. Not to mention that they're globals in the way Tesco isn't.

BP and Shell have no refining capability in the UK.

But they still have refining capability adding to global profits.

<nods>
And when the comment being replied to was...

Deesee said:

Tesco fuel turnover is 11/12% of turnover. Say 6 billion pa, profit who knows.? They won’t say..

Shell and BP clear that in opperating profits most years.

As above, the debate wasnt about profits - it was that there was a comment that Tesco would not check the quality of their fuel but I highlighted given the scale of their operations in the UK its very likely they would!

[TooMany2cvs]

littleredrooster said:

Me? I'll merely point to the fact (...that word again...) that there's only 6 refineries making the stuff, so it's unlikely that a fuel station in (say) North Wales would get a specialised delivery from (say) Grangemouth.

It's pipelined from the refineries to regional cross-brand distribution centres, right? How many of them nationally?

[anonymous-user]

Camelot1971 said:

Just to be clear, you are saying that all fuel, regardless of brand, is exactly the same?

No, poor reading skills, must try harder, we are saying it all comes from the same place, the difference is the mixture provided.

So tesco fuel and bp fuel and shell fuel, all starts out the same, and then have addictives added depending on destination.

[Thankyou4calling]

Thornaby said:

Believe what you want. He tells all of his customers to not fill up there. He doesnt own a petrol station so doesnt gain from it.

I'm assuming its blocked fuel filters. We had a lot of our work vans have this issue when filling up at Morrisons.

Must be the pies.

[Red 4]

Ethanol content.

Don't worry, your engine will eat itself soon enough.

[jagnet]

So how do Shell's GTL fuels fit in, which v-power diesel is I think, or at least a major part is GTL? I presume they're not available to anyone but Shell? In which case not all fuel is the same base fuel.

[TooMany2cvs]

jagnet said:

So how do Shell's GTL fuels fit in, which v-power diesel is I think, or at least a major part is GTL? I presume they're not available to anyone but Shell? In which case not all fuel is the same base fuel.

Are they actually on UK forecourts?

[anonymous-user]

Pica-Pica said:

found Shell the best, supermarket fuel the worst. Knowing her background and capabilities, I trust her analyses.

When I'm making scientific analysis of unknown quality/quantity i find the term 'best',the best scientific summary.

[Michaelbailey]

From my fairly limited knowledge on this with regards to power i believe shell is the best with bp being not much better than supermarket fuels. (Fifth gear i believe did an episode on it quick google or youtube should find it)
Few videos out there with independant tests with regards to cleaning and internal friction showed to be significantly lower on shell.
"Premium" fuels also tend to have cleaners in them which help to prevent carbon build up. May be more kinder on egr valves etc.
Finally this isnt necessarily relevant to the OP but i believe tesco get 99 octane by using ethanol as a octane booster. This can be quite harsh on fuel lines. While i sound a bit like a shell salesman this is info that i have found independantly and i therefore only ever use shell premium on all my cars. My 2 cents

[jagnet]

TooMany2cvs said:

Are they actually on UK forecourts?

I believe V-Power has in part been GTL for several years.

Some quick Googling suggests that Shell does supply its GTL fuels to Certas Energy who in turn supply customers including construction, haulage, local councils and utilities. I can't find any evidence that they supply it to supermarkets or competing brands however.

[jagnet]

Michaelbailey said:

Finally this isnt necessarily relevant to the OP but i believe tesco get 99 octane by using ethanol as a octane booster.

Doesn't all UK petrol contain up to 5% ethanol? If it contained between 5 and 10% it'd have to be labelled as E10 on the pump.

[anonymous-user]

7.5 - 10% depending on brand, eu directive.