December's Pemex fuel prices

"Having lived and driven in Europe, there are marked differences in the fuel in every country, in Italy the fuel stinks and that smell permates all cities"
I've noticed the same in the USA - gasoline from the Uinta Basin produces a sort of tar-like smell when it is burned in a motor.

My understanding is Top Tier . . . http://www.toptiergas.com/faqs/ . . . has to do with detergent additives different brands have put in at the refinery. I do not know how this works. I am no expert. But - for example - in the Denver area (as well as other areas) there is one refinery . . . http://www.suncor.com/about-us/refining . . . and all stations get their fuel from there no matter what brand the sign outside says it sold at that station. I think it is possible different brands specify what other stuff they want in the gasoline they sell but the basic stuff is all the same. These different oil companies do not necessarily have their own refineries. In fact few do anymore.

I recently wrote here about Gulf Oil since they were mentioned as being among the companies wanting in to Mexico. Gulf produces nothing these days - they just sell. That is true of many others - just a recognizable brand name that could mean nothing.

And the Top Tier thing is some kind of trademarked designation stations get for using a certain detergent blend. And as Mex says there is no guarantee that once they get the sign on the pump that the detergents are still being added.

I buy junk fuel - don't care what brand it might be - the cheapest I can find - gas or diesel - never had a problem in 55 years of driving - 35 years with diesel. Not saying it can't happen but it hasn't happened to me.

I did once have the sort of problems mentioned here - poor performance and bucking and sputtering - it was the oxygen sensor in the exhaust pipe that determines something about the mix and tells the computer to adjust fuel or firing or something. Seemed like a fuel problem but it was this bad sensor that was not sending the correct message to the control system.

So who knows what is good or bad? I sure don't.

Much west coast USA independent brands are refined by VALERO. Ever try to find an Atlantic Richfield refinery? Good luck. Much of Mexico's Premium is made in the Shell/Pemex joint venture refinery in Deer Park, Texas. Mexico forbids the addition of alcohol but still lavishes use of MTBE in many areas.

The name missing here is

TOP TIER GASOLINE

And administered by the American Petroleum Institute

Personally I give small credence to the API. There is ZERO checking and there is ZERO monitoring. As long as the refiner belongs to institute and submits numbers they can gain Top Tier status. "Your Rights As A Robbery Victim" as read to you by a member of the American Association of Holdup Artists.

Pemex does insist that UBA Premium really is ultra low sulfur. And being Mexico, a guarantee that different loads of fuel wont get "cross contaminated" is a joke. Some independent barges hauling fuel from Topolobampo, SIN. to Pichilingue BCS, dump a load of gasoline into a barge that just crossed with diesel.

And forget tetraethyl lead spiking. Lead is now extremely expensive and limited to some aircraft gasoline. TEL has never been manufactured in Mexico. Diesel marina and aircraft gasoline is impossible to get ahold of. Ship's or Aircraft manifest is needed and 110 low lead is almost seven dollars a gallon.

Having lived and driven in Europe, there are marked differences in the fuel in every country, in Italy the fuel stinks and that smell permates all cities, Milano, Rome even in the canals of Venis you have the smell of the fuel, and even in Europe Shell fuel is not that good, Esso and anything other than Shell is what we used.

There are sertain international standards, and as mentioned aditives change from brand to brand, I noticed the amount of kilometers or miles that the various fuels rendered for the trips taken.

Next year the price of fuel in Mexico will go up, unless something drastic happens.

navegator

navigator: Very interesting. Sometimes after finding one brand to be bad you may find that the problem is local. In some areas there is only one refinery and all brands use the same fuel. The additive package is different. Where I live in Canada the small engine repair shops all say: NEVER USE SHELL. But maybe we are imagining this as Tepetapan says that fuels are made to some international standard !!!!!!!!!! " Pure Nonsense"!!!!

Moisheh

I tried Shell, Arco and Chevron in San Diego, all in the high grade on the Ford E-350 V10 doing the same route to the desert under basically the same weather and wind conditions, and the same speed on country roads pulling a Suzuki Gran Vitara empty and the RV with minimum load, full water tank and full fuel tank, total distance 182 miles going out and 182 miles going home.

Shell was the worst, when a 2001 V-10 engine knocks and pings going up grade every grade and reach my destination under a half a tank, between a quarter and half lower than the middle not good, fueled at the destination with Shell and made the trip back, having more up grades going back than going out we got home with the gage needle just above the empty mark.

Arco same distance same grade same load, no pings no knocking, reached the desert with the needle close to the half mark just under, fueled in the desert and headed back, at home the needle was lower than at the desert, maybe we could make it out and back with one tank, down to the reserve.

Chevron same trip same load, at the desert needle above the half mark no pings no knocks needle is above the half mark, did not fuel at the desert but decided to return home and see when I would need the fuel since we would be in close to town with gas stations, made it home with the needle above the empty mark, with Chevron we have been averaging on our trips depending on grades and wind 400+ miles per fuel tank some times less some times more.

Is there difference in fuel quality, I will say yes, worst fuel I have ever bought was some **** in Texas with Ethanol, if we got about 9 miles per gallon with regular fuel that junk gives about 5 or 6 and the engine has no get go.

So ladies and gentlemen, ask your motor what fuel they want for supper and buy that, it will be happy and so will you.

navegator

Some vehicles are fussy about fuel. I have 3.0 Mitsubishi V6 that cannot tolerate Mexican refined Magna for more than 3,000 miles. Then it bucks and stalls to the point of being ridiculous. The only additive that would straighten it out was Chevron Techron and the fix was dramatic. I do not have the issue with USA refined Magna (Baja California) but awful in Baja California Sur. No issues ever with Premium. But had I ot encountered neck snapping problems with Mexican Magna I would use it - it costs less. BTW this is with 100,000 miles south of the border.

I never called anyone a liar, I called it nonsense and stick by those words.

If the experts ever read the paper on a daily basis and stopped listening to rumors , that would be a good start. Especially for part timers. Mexico Government stated over a half year ago that gas prices are not going to go down much, if any. Reason being the cost of infrastructure needed for the new gas companies. Right now they are allowed to rent storage space from Pemex but they will need to build tank farms and contract tankers to deliver the fuel.
This has been gone over dozens of times in all the leading newspapers, nothing new.

The Magna comment comes from the news paper article, in any case whether one uses Magna or Premium or the Diesel and your vehicle runs OK that is all that matters going from point A to point B and beyond.

The interesting fact is that the few PEMEX gas stations in Texas sell fuel at much lower prices than Mexico, reason all the taxes that go with the fuel that in reality do not benefit the public in Mexico, all that money goes to some poiliticos pocket and the Sindicato de Travajadores Petroleros (union) a lot of persons that do not work but receive a "salary" but that is beginning to go away, an Australian petrol company won the bid to drill in one of the offshore plots last week or the week before, there is hope that maybe prices stay the same or will be lowered, although I doubt it, prices in Mexico are never lowered.

Que pasen un buen dia senores

navegator

Tepetapan: Are you calling me a liar??? One day I was in HMO and stopped for fuel. A PU truck beside me had a flat deck trailer with plywood sides. About 24 feet long. It was full of converters. I asked the driver what that was all about. Some of them appeared to be brand new. He explained about the value of these babies. Precious metals including:palladium, and rhodium are in the converters. When scrap metal prices were at all time highs some converters could bring $300 or more. Today's commodity prices are lower. There were ads in El Imparcial that offered a while you wait removal service. When prices were high you got the equivalent of $75 to $150 for the large units. Even in Canada thieves were using battery powered pipe cutters to cut off the converters on car lots! Magna is manufactured to a Mexican standard that has a higher Sulfur content than in the USA. You will not see the UBA sign on Magna pumps. Only Premium. According to Mex and others Premium is all manufactured in the US. As usual your so called facts are flawed.

https://yucalandia.com/driving-in-mexico-issues-fun/pemex-gasoline-issues-the-article/

http://automotivemexico.com/?p=3198

Moisheh