Most synthetic oils are still made with a crude oil base.

 

OK, Thanks..I was not aware of that. I assumed that synthetic meant synthetic.

Without getting too deeply into politics, I have always felt that we should have a synthetic fuel-industry here in the U.S. For instance, during World War II, when the Japanese invaded Southeast Asia and took control of the area's rubber-tree-plantations, cutting off the supply of natural rubber we were getting from that area for use in tires and other products, President Roosevelt established a synthetic-rubber industry here at home, so that we would still have tires as needed.

 

Yeah most people think that! Most synthetic oils sold in the us are Group III oils which are derived straight from crude oil, the crude oil is just chemically broken down and realigned. In Europe these oils cannot be called Fully Synthetic. Mobil 1 and most retail “synthetic oils” are this.

Group IV oils are derived from ethylene gas but that gas comes from crude oil and they are always blended with Group III oils. Amsoil, Mobil 1 EP and Euro lines, Ravenol, Liqui Moly, Pennzoil Platinum

Group V oils are Esthers, but even they are typically blended with Group III or IV oils.Redline, Motul…

 

We do, it's just not enough to supply the whole world in lieu of the main suppliers

 

Bingo, your really nice group 4/5 base stock is still blended to high heaven with heavily processed and engineered oils removed from the crude stack.

It's vastly misunderstood just how little a base stock matters in light of the overall package and how much said package relies on crude derivatives. Sure a full synth base stock can provide a good base but if you have a hell of an advanced process for "sorting" a hyrdocracked base and pulling only what you want it doesn't matter. Synthetics were developed to allow production of lubricants without access to or in times of short supply of crude and because back in the day it was not as easily possible to separate and extract exactly what was wanted.

Much easier to just fabricate the uniform base oil directly but now it doesn't matter nearly as much. Most of my oil is group 4 with some stuff being 5 like my gear oil and MT oil but I wouldn't have an issue with a group 3 that had high specs. It just most of the time it's cheaper and easier to hit high specs using a 4/5

 

Well, to some extent at least, that's to be expected...most of the population aren't chemists. Even the Organic Chemistry and lab course I took in college did not cover subjects like that.

 

Yeah very true and good point, I'm just a massive nerd about my hobbies so I delve too deep into where my consumables come from lol!

I keep spares for a lot of critical consumables for stuff in my life out of mindfulness it doesn't actually take much to down the global network of goods and if it's not made stateside good luck getting it!

Im fighting the temptation to buy oil for my more simple engines right now, I know there will be no issues with keeping them fed but I fear that even if group 2/3 oils remain relatively unaffected they will jack up prices anyways. Going to be very interesting actually using manufacture recommended OCIs vs my usual 5k on those cars if this goes on for more than a year....

 

i have some oil in my shed i have no use for if someone’s desperate.

 

I'd hold onto it.
Might go up in value. Lol

I remember when oil would go on sale for $1 per quart.
The good 'ol days.

 

The US simply needs to start move off of fossil fuels and reduce the dependency of oil in the economy. EV and green vehicles are part of the solutions to help in that capacity

 

Come now…(that) would make sense.

 

I bought 4 cases each (10 qts per case) of both Kirkland 5W30 & 0W20 when Costco had a sale last month. Should be good for awhile.

 

Good. There is no good reason to use super thin oil for the sake of CAFE.

 

Back to calling it Black Gold.

 

Hey now, thats your retirement. Don't give it away!