What is everyones experiance with conoco gasoline? We have a lot of conoco stations in MS and wanted to know if their gas had a high energy content like ammoco or texaco.

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Hi Slick,

While I don't have an answer for you, as we do not have Conoco close to us here, we have used it in the past, and don't remember any particular issues or problems, though that isn't much help, I know.

The energy content will vary from one refinery run to the next, and it can also vary quite a bit based on time of year and geographic location.

There is a very nice gentleman who is a member here who works for Conoco (I don't know what he actually does, so this may not help at all), and he goes by the screen name "Conocoan". You might want to ask him if he has any insight on this, he may or he may well not have, I don't know, but he's a good sharp fellow who works for them, so he might have some helpful info, perhaps.

Hopefully you'll get some responses from others who have used that brand, good luck!

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer

 

Thanks for the kind words Mike,

This is not my area of expertise as I work in the exploration & development end of things. But I did make a call to the “Downstream” side and I posed your question. I don’t think I have the answer to your question but I will pass on what I found out.

First of all, he says that they don’t measure the energy content of gasoline as far as he knew. He knows for a fact that it’s not sold by energy content. He said that at the refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana they produce 93 and 86 octane. They then blend the two to make 89 octane. The gasoline is then put into the pipeline where it goes to various “terminals” owned by various oil companies. It supplies Exxon Mobil and Citco just to name a couple and that this pipeline runs up to Oklahoma City, up the East coast and no telling where else. It is at these terminals that each respective oil company adds their own additive package. It is then loaded into tank trucks and sent to the prospective gas stations. These additive packages vary from company to company with each company saying theirs is the best. He says this additive package has nothing to do with energy content but is designed to keep your valves and fuel injection system clean.

So, here is what I learned to be true. All oil companies supply each other with base gasoline. Each respective Oil Company then adds there own miracle working additive package. And, he’s probably right that it has nothing to do with energy content.

Now here’s another piece of the puzzle. I know that we send the refineries different types of oil from the fields. For instance, some of the fields in South America produce a heavy crude, the fields in West Texas produce an oil with a high sulfur content. I have seen condensate from the gulf so thin that it looked and smelled like gasoline straight from the ground. Now you would think that once it’s refined, that’s it and there’s no difference. But, when Mike says that different refineries produce different energy contents and it differs throughout the year, this may be one reason.

I have heard that Texaco is considered to be one of the best. Is this true all across the country or just a few select stations that happen to be supplied by a refinery that’s getting a better grade of oil?

 

Hi Conocoan,

Ahh, I was hoping you'd drop by, thanks very much for your response, and your perspectives as well!

In our experience from having traveled extensively and used many brands of gas in 38 different states over a number of years repeatedly, it has seemed that more often than not, in most areas that we've been to, Texaco, Amoco & Citgo have seemed to give us the best results of what we've used in terms of mileage, and our perception of idle quality and performance. Among the "major brands", we have consistently found Exxon to give some of the worst results, while it's relatively clean burning, there is more tendency towards detonation, and consistently yields lower mileage results, thanks to it being reformulated year-round for the past few years, and thus having a lower energy content.

Along with all that we add the feedback we get from many of our customers all over, and we try to boil all of that down to which brands seem to give better results, more often than not, in most places. I think that's really about the best one can do to try and qualtify all of this as a layman. And all of that, particularly over these past few years of reformulated fuels, is what has gone into us making the "layman's recommendations" that we make here.

The sum total of all that, has told us that Texaco, Amoco & Citgo have, more often than not, tended to give better results in terms of actual mileage, along with perceived idle quality and performance.

Of course we've always said that other brands can work equally well too, but that we just don't have much direct experience or feedback about them. For example, we have used on several occasions for 3-5 tanks at a time, and have a decent amount of feedback on the brand Shell. It seems here in the East it works pretty well, while out West it's not giving equally as good results. Chevron, which I have never cared for here in the East, is revered in certain areas, like Southern California. And so it goes.....

What we basically try to advise people to do when evaluating their local gasoline brands is to use at least 3 to 5 tanks of each brand when you're sampling, and keep precise track of your exact mileage results every time you fill up. The brands that gave the highest mileage (assuming we're not talking about a situation where the evaluation spans the time frame during which yearly use of reforumated fuels is brought back in soem reas of low air quality), are generally those having the higher energy content, and if idle quality is good and perceived performance also good, then those are the fuels to use.

One lesson that we have learned time after time is not *never* buy gasoline based on price. Many people do just that, with no thought to any other factors, such as the quality of the detergent additive packages (they do vary, and as Conocoan said, they all claim theirs is the best), which help to maintain a smooth idle and keep intake valves and fuel injectors cleaner, longer, fuel mileage, etc. We're staunch believers in using the best quality gasoline you can find, always.

Thanks again for your post, Conocoan!

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Mike Troyer
Performance Products, Inc.
National Distributor of Superchips
(540) 862-9515
Email: mtroyer@compuserve.com
Performance Products F150Online Superchip ordering system: F150Online Superchip Ordering System
First National F-150 Online Rally Event Organizer