Hi all, just sharing my 2 cents on issue of patrols in Malaysia, though I won't proclaim I'm coming from o&g industry

1. Retail fuels are still imported, as has been the case since many years ago. Most are the sour crude from middle east/African countries. The oil extracted off Kerteh/Miri are the sweet crude type and fetches a premium over sour crude. Though sour crude can be processed to Tier4 levels but the process is expensive.

2. There are 3 refiners in Malaysia - Petronas, Shell and Petron (inherited from Mobil). The base stock is imported, no doubt. They also help other brands such as caltex and bhp to blend with their own preferred additives. Ultimately, the fuel leaving these refineries are same and only the additives are different.

3. Some people say certain fuel better, others terrible, but most are attributed to the placebo effect aided by marketing gimmicks. However, I have to say that the cleanliness of the tanks and age of the fuel are the 2 most important attributes - probably more important than additive packages and other gimmicks!

4. BHP boldly claims that their retail petrols are EU3 compliant but I suspect that this claim is based on certain batches of "best case" fuel and not the "everyday" fuel that you and I pump. The point is how consistent is this EU3 quality - is every litre of petrol that consumer pumps into his/her tank is EU3 standard?

5. BHP's diesel is still EU2 like any others

6. By now, most of the diesel in Pen Malaysia are B5 biodiesel blend, and most are _guaranteed_ EU2 quality fuel. Sabah & Sarawak have yet to implement this. Thailand and recently, Indonesia are all B5 now. Rumour in the mill is that there is intention to increase our B5 to B10 to ease our palm old inventory but I doubt many diesel vehicles can accept this with most at B7 level.