Oil Prices

[theoilman]

The ripple effect of crude oil prices on lubricants is now catching up.

AMSOIL motor oil prices will rise Aug 1 by around 12% over the current.

Most of the major oil companies have also announced price increases - some Aug 1, some Aug 4, some Aug 10 - by as much as an unbelievable 24%!

Hopefully with the price of crude stabilizing a bit now this will be the last of these unbelievable unprecedented increases.

If you will be buying oil soon, you better do it before Friday.

{Moderators - I tried to make this post as generic as possible to put it in the Automotive forum where it will be seen much more than if I put it in the sponsor forum.}

[Ralph Wiggum]

Maybe you're not the one with the answer, but why do crude oil prices affect the price of synthetic oil? Doesn't the fact that it is "synthetic" mean that there is not crude oil in it?

[theoilman]

There are several reasons - first is which definition of synthetic do you use?

Today in the US (only) a "Group 3" oil is legally (lawyer definition) allowed to be called a synthetic. A group 3 oil is made by taking a traditional petroleum based lubricant and submitting it to additional manufacturing steps (which do improve it, somewhat). All of the private label and store label synthetics and most of the ones from most of the oil companies today are selling group 3 synthetics. In the rest of the world these are NOT synthetics.

The traditional definition of a synthetic oil is that it be made / build from lesser molecules. AMSOIL and Mobil 1 (and a few others) are both "group 4" synthetics that are built from other molecules. These "group 4" synthetics are called PAOs and are designed and built using other parts of (you guessed it) crude oil - using the lightest portions - things like natural gas and naptha. But they are still built using different portions of crude oil.

Also, it takes more energy to "build" a synthetic, as well as the energy involved in its shipping/distribution. Don't forget things like the bottle - the plastic of it is also another crude oil product.

Crude oil has many impacts on AMSOIL as well as all other lubricants.

[DinkADunk]

Thanks for the heads up. I saw your post and put in my order. Figure now is as good a time as any to stock up on the fluids I need to winterize the outboards as well as do a trany fluid change before winter.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Thanks for the explanation. I guess "synthetic" is actually a misnomer, then.

[DinkADunk]

Not really, the lubricant is made by synthesizing the product from simpler molecules. It doesn't imply anything about the origin of the molecules. They could be from refined petroleum, rendered pork fat, whale oil, vegetable oil, etc.