Archive for Malaysian Fuel Prices

According to Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung, the new fuel subsidy management system will be implemented from May 2010 onwards, so I suggest everyone be prepared to restructure your household’s monthly budgets for a potential increase in fuel expenditure, especially if you are a middle income earner, a group that like its namesake are constantly squeezed around the world.

The system is currently being finetuned and studies on the subsidy distribution and target groups are currently still underway. The system’s exact mechanism will be announced after the study is completed and a decision has been made.

The PM had previously announce in his Budget 2010 speech that the system would use our MyKad identification card.

The new Euro2M specification Caltex Diesel with Techron D has been available at Caltex stations nationwide since the 1st of September 2009. In addition to complying with the new Euro2M specifications, the Techron D additive is a new formulation which has a few benefits according to lab tests:

• Produce cleaner fuel injectors with 47% more flow resulting in 6% more power.  In a diesel engine, keeping the fuel injectors clean is critical as diesel fuel injectors are prone to deposits clogging.  Deposits can upset the injector spray pattern and hinder the fuel-air mixing process and this can result in decreased fuel economy, increased emissions and compromise engine performance. In the very latest engines, each hole in a fuel injector may be as small as the width of two human hairs. The potential for negative impact from injector deposits is increasing as diesel engines become more sophisticated.
• Protect metal surfaces against corrosion.
• Produce 83% less foam, making it easier for the diesel to be filled.

The above benefits were measured in a lab test compared to a “reference diesel” without the Techron D additive. Has anyone with a diesel vehicle tried Caltex Diesel yet, or any of the new Euro 2M diesels? How do you find it compared to the old MS123 diesel on sale before the 1st of September?

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It’s just been a month since Shell was supposed to have officially rolled out their new RON95 fuel, but now they’ve decided to introduce an updated formula.

Their fuel is now called Shell FuelSave Unleaded 95 and Shell FuelSave Unleaded 97, and Shell claims it can help motorists save up to 1 liter from every full tank – with a full tank calculated as 50 liters of course.

Savings of 1 liter out of 50 liters can be said a few ways to better help understand it. It can either be a 5% fuel saving, or an extra 10 to 12km depending on how much fuel your engine normally drinks, or RM1.80 per tank.

Shell claims the new formula contains an ingredient that is active in your engine from the moment you start using it, not just after one full tank. It’s called and Efficiency Improver and it’s designed to help lubricate engine parts where normal engine oils cannot easily reach, as the fuel comes in from the top and naturally engine oil has to fight against gravity.

I personally have not tried the fuel yet but if you decide to give it a shot please share your experiences here. I’ve actually seen the promo posters for this before the launch today so you could already have this new formula in your fuel tank if you’ve pumped a full tank in the past 2 or 3 days.

BHPetrol has launched its new BHPetrol infiniti Diesel fuel and it is now available at all service stations, which amount to over 300 currently. infiniti Diesel complies with the new Euro 2M standards, which means a maximum of 500ppm of sulphur compared to last month’s MS123 standard diesel fuel which called for a maximum of 3,000ppm of sulphur.

A Diesel Performance Additive Package from a leading chemical company is used to give infiniti Diesel anti-corrosion (for engine protection) and foam inhibitor (for easy fill-up) properties as well as improve mileage. The additive also contains a key detergent ingredient called HR-PIB or Highly Reactive Polyisobutene Succinimide which can clean deposits in the engine.

This additive package has been added to the fuel at the chemical company’s recommended maximum dose rate, which offers double the cleaning power against typical surveyed European branded diesel. This was the findings of tests on the 1.9 liter Peugeot XUD9 diesel engine, which is apparently a standard European test.

infiniti Diesel goes for the standard price of RM1.70 per liter.

Caltex officially launched their Premium 95 fuel with Techron late last month at the Caltex station in Sunway. RON95 is now available at Caltex stations nationwide. The new fuel will replace the Caltex Silver with Techron which is a RON92 fuel, and the Caltex Gold with Techron fuel will be renamed Premium 97 with Techron.

Some of you actually had some questions in the blog comments of the previous story on Caltex Techron, such as whether the local Techron formula is the same as the Techron fuel in the USA sold by Chevron. Here are some answers from Caltex:

1. Is there any difference between Techron in Premium 95 and in your RON97 fuel?

The Techron ingredient in 92, 95 or 97 is the same and gives the same level of performance in each grade.

2. Is the Techron formula for our market the same as the one used overseas in countries like the US, etc?

Yes, it’s the same formula and level of performance that was the first to be recognized as “Top Tier” by Honda, GM, Toyota, BMW, Audi and Volkswagen.

3. What properties does the Techron additive have?

Techron has been designed to provide fast & effective cleanup of the engine intake system (manifold, ports & valves) as well as the fuel metering system (fuel injectors or carburetor) and to keep those critical parts clean. It is able to clean up port fuel injectors in ONE tank.

4. I understand polyetheramine is one of the ingredients in Techron. What is polyetheramine?

Polyetheramine (PEA) is one of the main detergents in Techron. It’s designed to control intake valve deposits, port deposits and fuel metering deposits to maintain smooth engine operation, power & exhaust emissions. It accomplishes this without significantly contributing to combustion chamber deposits (CCD) unlike most other fuel additives. Low CCD helps minimize octane requirement increase which can reduce power in some vehicles equipped with knock sensors. PEA also eliminates any possibility of harm in the crankcase.

5. Any other tips on how to keep your engine clean? Is it true that once in a while you have to drive your car a little harder than usual to clean off those deposits?

Always use gasoline that contains a powerful detergent with high efficacy, like Techron, on a continuous basis. The second statement is a myth.

6. Since RON97 has been repositioned as a premium unsubsidised fuel by the government, is Caltex going to upgrade their RON97 fuel to something performance-based like V-Power?

There’s always this possibility and it greatly depends on customers’ requirements and demands.

Premium 95 with Techron had actually made its debut at the Caltex Bandar Utama station on the 5th of August 2009. It is now available at 40 Caltex stations nationwide.

Well, it’s been a few days now since the government have officially restructured the price and grade structure of our fuel. RON95 now costs RM1.80, the same price as RON97 before anyone attempted to ‘fix’ the system, while RON97 is now RM2.05.

For those of you who still want to continue pumping RON97 if your car requires the higher octane, are you having luck finding the fuel where you stay or work?

In my neighbourhood, there are only Petronas stations and one lone Shell whose fuel pumps are really slow. So to save time, I usually pump Petronas as the station gets the fuel into my tank faster. Unfortunately, RON97 sale at my station seems to have halted for the time being.

This is just speculation at the moment (though there have been some whispers that there is truth to this), but hopefully that the temporary halt of RON97 sales means a new and better fuel is coming on the way for Petronas to take the place of Primax 3. But for now, let’s share our experiences pumping RON95 in our car.

What car are you using, and which RON95 did you pump? Have you noticed any changes to the way your car drives and how your engine bay sounds? And if yes, have the changes you’ve experienced been positive or negative so far? For those who experience better or worse fuel economy, please share what are the differences in terms of km per liter or liter per 100km, whichever you are more comfortable with.

Sometimes if your car does not have high octane requirements, switching from a RON97 fuel with an inferior additive mix to a RON95 fuel with a superior additive mix may have a positive effect. Of course you need not remind that in the first place we were supposed to have a positive effect on our wallet but no longer as the new RON95 is the same price as the old RON97.

If you recall, there was a fuel grade survey posted up a few weeks ago on this blog. Respondents were asked a few questions about RON95 and RON97 as well as what they think the difference between the two fuel octane types are. At the end, you were asked whether you wanted to participate in a product test. The fuel company that commissioned the survey was actually BHPetrol and a number of participants were picked.

Read after the jump to check out the survey results as well as the results of the product test. Of course some of the questions called for an open-ended answer and it’s not feasible to include the thousands of replies here so we only hav the initial multiple-choice questions as well as the results of the product test.

Click here to read the rest of BHPetrol RON95 Fuel Survey Results

Those who think that their fuel tank refills will cost less by RM0.05 per liter because they’ve switched to RON95 as their regular fuel have to wipe their smile off their faces – the government has announced that RON95 will be priced at the old RON97 price of RM1.80 per liter from midnight onwards.

As for RON97, we already know that a price hike is imminent – it will be priced at RM2.05 per liter. RON92 has been phased out. No news about Shell V-Power for now, as it is it’s been removed from a significant amount of stations. They are probably still trying to figure out the sweet spot for pricing and planning the logistics for supply to stations.

This is expected really, considering crude oil per barrel closed US$72.75 a barrel on Friday, which is up 20% from around US$60 in July. There are various factors for this but the most quoted reasons are an improving global economy and a declining US dollar – the lower USD’s values are, the more USD you will have to pay per barrel.

Some of you who occasionally pump Shell V-Power Racing may have suddenly discovered your regular Shell Station has stopped offering it. I know I was surprised to find it gone at the Shell Station after the 50 sen toll in Cheras. The red pump had become the usual RON97 version of Shell Super while the green pump is now RON95.

According to Shell, the official reason for phasing out V-Power Racing for some stations is they need to optimize selected stations in their network and increase capacity for RON95 to meet customer demand. V-Power Racing was never available at all stations in the first place – the Taman Connaught Shell that used to be a Projet had always had RON92 and RON97.

Anyway I found this list of stations where it is still offered on their site. Click the icon at the top right of the document viewer to read the tables in a larger view.

Euro 2M diesel is now here in Malaysia ahead of the 1st September 2009 schedule. It is priced at RM1.70 per liter. You will be able to find it at all Petronas stations from the 1st onwards in the form of the new Petronas Dynamic Diesel, that’s sold with an additive Petronas calls SINAR D07. Petronas says the previous additive introduced in 2006 was known as SINAR D05.

The new Petronas Dynamic Diesel meets Euro 2M standards, which means a maximum of 500ppm of sulphur in the fuel. This is a huge improvement over the previous standard which limited sulphur content to 3000ppm. But don’t think all diesels were that high in sulphur all this while – a research by Petronas which I pointed to back in 2007 showed that out of 6 brands of diesel at that time (2004), only one had 2800 ppm of sulphur, with the rest ranging from as low as 200 ppm to 500 ppm.

The availability of Euro 2M diesel fuel may spark an interest in both the car manufacturers and consumers to offer diesel versions of passenger cars and buy these diesel-powered products respectively. However one problem would be the fact that most modern diesel engines are designed to run on Euro 3 (350ppm), so the new Euro 2 diesel may still not be good enough. Euro 4 requires 50ppm, and Singaporean diesel such as Shell ULSD is already compliant.

Companies that are confident of a big enough volume might be willing to do some modifications to suit our market and it is very likely that this will only happen at the more expensive segments where the margins are larger and easier to justify. For cheaper cars, consumers may not be confident enough in diesel cars and most may still shy away from the benefits of a turbodiesel because of the certain negative characteristics of a diesel engine such as the sound and smell.

The worst part is that even for those who are very eager to try diesel cars for the economy it offers, the norm is for diesel powerplants to cost more than a petrol engine, so this may drive up the prices of diesel-engined models to a level too shocking for the budget-conscious consumers at that level to accept.

The BMW 320d Touring was offered here by BMW Malaysia Sdn Bhd when the E90/E91 3-Series was first launched. This model is now gone when the facelift was introduced as response was low.

In the second hand car market, the new diesel may spark a new interest in second hand diesel-powered luxury cars cars such as the Mercedes-Benz E270 CDi or the BMW 530d as a powerful and fuel efficient alternative. The E270 CDI can be found priced at a good 15% to 20% cheaper than its petrol-powered siblings of the same year and the massive low-end torque of a turbodiesel suits the kind of relaxed drive that an E-Class buyer typically looks for.

We will see more fuel companies launching their improved Euro 2 diesels over the next few days leading up to the 1st September 2009 deadline for the new standard to be introduced. The fuel companies will definitely take this opportunity to rebrand their fuels.