There are only 5 refineries in the Peninsula: Petronas Kertih, Petronas Melaka 1, Petronas-Conoco Melaka 2 (newest), Shell PD and Esso PD. And Esso PD is the oldest, smallest and least efficient of the 5, and I doubt it's still producing actively. So all the base ULG fuel available here is Petronas and Shell. Unless you think the other brands import their gasoline, where do you think they get their commodity base ULG from? BHP isn't even an Oil & Gas company! All O&G companies off-take from each other worldwide. Here, even Shell will off-take from Petronas when they go on planned maintenance shutdowns of 45 days. Most of the gasoline sold here is from Petronas.
The only difference between the brands is their additive packages, which are dosed in at the point of filling their tankers at the terminals. But even additives are commodities, not made by the O&G companies themselves. They are not magic potions, just chemicals made by companies like BASF, Bayer, Dow, 3M, etc. It's all the same anti-knock, detergent, dye, etc, only in slightly differing quantities. Slightly less anti-knock in the same base ULG gives you RON95, slightly more RON97. Sorry to take away the romance of gasoline, but better that you know the truth right?
Incidentally, for those who think that we are an oil producing nation and therefore our raw material should be at much lower cost, the truth is that the crude oil refined in our refineries for local consumption is imported Middle Eastern heavy sour (high sulphur) Our higher quality light sweet crude is exported to countries with more stringent fuel standards and major chemical industries such as Europe and Japan to maximise the revenue going into the piggy bank. Now perhaps you will understand why until recently we were at Euro 0 fuel standards and only recently at Euro 2. Using our own crude to achieve higher standards will mean less crude to export for higher revenue, so we're using cheaper imported crude at market prices.
