premium shortage?!

[Rednut]

Hi All,

I have no evidence to support this but the last 3 days ive been searching newcastle for any type of premium petrol i could get my hands on, everywhere is sold out.. i spoke to the girl behind the counter at the shell in merewether and she said theres a problem with the supplier and that its a national problem...

i hope this isnt true cause ive put $20 worth of normal unleaded in the seat and its getting f-all k's out of it compared to $20 worth of premium..

can anyone shed some light on this?

[LoriJarrod]

I filled up at Caltex at Beresfield yesterday. The staff there said they have plenty. Word gets around fast though. Haven't seen it anywhere else.

The BP on Newcastle Rd in Hamilton South/Newcastle West has a sign saying that they're using Mobil 8000 due to a supply problem.

[Mrk_Mickey]

Lol every so often the premium seems to run out and people ask about it here. I say be a tad patient, unlike myself, and I'm sure it'll come back. I had to put 91 (!!!) in the VR about two weeks ago and as SOON as premium was back on I filled it up and apologised to my poor car

[eg1974]

im surprised more is being made of this issue of the shortage of 98 or PULP. here in sydney, servo's have them out of order so you are compelled to run on 95.

now, i can already hear the experts saying the car will run fine on 95 but since i've been filling up on 95 my 06 jetta has been pinging all over the place.

i called my local vw service centre today to be told that there is definitely problems of some description at the refinery and that he had other customers complaining of that ticking sound, consistant with pinging on acceleration. the advice given to me by the service centre was to `sit tight' and hopefully the supply of pulp will return to normal soon. i smell a rat....

[PilotCupra]

I to am surprised at total lack of information about the premium 98 shortage (and in some parts 95 also) especially from the illustrious NRMA??!! My local shell ran out nearly all the way back to xmas. The Caltex ran out three weeks later, due to higher than usual patrionage (no suprise there) and finally my last source, BP, ran out of Ultimate last week and is struggling to secure regular premium.
I've searched high and low for explanations from their respective web sites but nothing. Finally got a reply from Shell today which is not too reassuring:
"Unfortunately the V Power shortage has been caused by a breakdown at the Refinery, which will take a month or more to repair. We are making arrangements to import V power from Shell refineries in Asia , but this is taking longer than expected. So it is difficult to give a date, but rest assured we are trying everything to get supply back to the service stations. Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
Shell Technical"
Easter weekend approaching may produce some intersting prices considering higher demand and clearly less fuel available.....
But more importantanly my Cupra is just not it self!!!

[Cupra]

"But more importantanly my Cupra is just not it self!!!"

I here ya, after running mine on 98 for so long it's such a different car to drive if the numbers start heading south for any reason!

phil

[vinderliker]

Here in Canberra, both Shell and BP had no premium.

[Rednut]

im gonna do a newcastle run to track down something better than 95. (hahaha they just did a story on the news about the prices while ive been typing)
its come at a great time(thursday+easter weekend) but being away from the tolly for the past 2 weeks, i think it deserves a good feed!

"hey mollins, is there anywhere out your way that still has the goods? perhaps that mobil on the top of croudace st?"

[Bubu]

I just posted about this in 'General Chat'.

I have been looking for 98 octane for the past 3 days and managed to find some at a Caltex not too far from me. As for 95 fuel, I can recall reading somewhere (I think it was Open Road (NRMA magazine)) that 95 will be phased out by government. One of my friends also mentioned that the BP he fills up at has removed 95 octane. I personally havent noticed because I never use 95.

This shortage is getting very bad until a couple of hours ago when I found the Caltex with 98 octane, I was on the verge of parking my car at home and calling in sick to work. The only other way I was gonna get to work is a (expensive) taxi ride. No public transport is available where I work. Not even a bus comes through there.

[blutopless2]

that sucks... nothing worse than not being able to get the fuel you need.
funny there is no shortage in melbourne tho. if it was truly a refinery problem then you would expect the whole country to feel it as stocks dry up.
but more likely another excuse to put it up even higher than the 10c/L over 92 octane.

[The_Hawk]

From what I have been told by a servo operator, they don't make as much money on Premium so would rather sell you the Regular unleaded. So why would they be in a rush to fix the problem??

As for difference in fuel, while I will agree there is a difference in 98 and regular, the VR6 will run just as happily on 91, economy wont be as good, but then I don't pay as much. Having said that I only run 98 in her anyway.

All of the tests I did with other cars I have had show that with MY driving style and patterns, 98 would give better economy but would cost more. When calculated out, the 98 and 91 worked out about the same price per 100km with the old difference being that I had to fill up more often with 91 and with 98 I was running a better fuel so the car was better off. On a long trip there is no doubt that 98 is by far the better fuel since you can extract the most value from it.

So long story short, unless your car is designed for premium only, it should be fine on 91, if your really worried, pick up some of those octane boosters/injector cleaner jobbies and keep them in the boot. Throw that in when you need a few extra octane points.

[Pullstarter]

There was a half page apology from Shell in the national newspapers yesterday, as someone else said prior they are having some kind of technical issues at the refinery and can't put a date on when it will again be available. We haven't had V Power down here since January and now the BPs are starting to run out of Ultimate too. Mobil still has Synergy 98 but who knows how long that will last?

[VW Convert]

From what I have been told by a servo operator, they don't make as much money on Premium so would rather sell you the Regular unleaded. So why would they be in a rush to fix the problem??

There is no conspiracy here, they had a major problem with one of the catalytic crackers at Shell refinery at Rosehill. Repairs have been going on many many weeks as can be evidenced by the huge cranes that are working on the site and the numerous large components that have been delivered by barge over the last few weeks.

Because there are only two refineries in Sydney (Caltex Kurnell and Shell Rosehill) supplying all the major brands of fuel, it follows that supply is running at about 50%. All companies that source from Shell are importing petrol from Singapore but there are limitations on port facilities that impact on their ability to bring in sufficient fuel.

BP say they expect things to return to normal by end of March on their website.


Cheers

George

[gareth_oau]

why dont you guys just pop over and fill up here in Perth, theres plenty of 98 around

[VW Convert]

why dont you guys just pop over and fill up here in Perth, theres plenty of 98 around

How about you fill a few 205 litre drums up and pop them in the post! LOL


Cheers

George