SHELL HAS ANNOUNCED that it is phasing out the sale of 92-Octane petrol to concentrate on selling its higher grades of fuel.

The company expects to withdraw Shell Formula 92 from all 65 of its stations across the island by the end of June. Currently only 19 of those still offer 92-Octane fuel.

Motorists’ appetite for the cheapest grade of fuel has been consistently small here, according to the company.

“Demand for 92-Octane fuel has remained flat at five percent of Shell’s total fuel volume,” says Henry Chu, the general manager for retail sales and operations.

“This figure has remained constant even when the oil price was at its peak of almost US$147 per barrel last year.”

Of the five percent of customers who used Formula 92, three percentage points were accounted for by fleet users, who have mostly been persuaded to switch to 95-Octane, says Shell.

Citing a third-party study, Shell points out that modern cars which are optimised for higher fuel grades typically get worse fuel consumption when run on a low grade, and to an extent that outweighs the savings from pump prices.

The study showed that cars designed for 95-Octane fuel got up to 4.3 percent better fuel economy than when they were run on 91-Octane fuel.

At the time Shell announced its decision to drop 92-Octane, the fuel was cheaper than 95-Octane by less than two percent.

Shell has long ceased to sell 92-Octane petrol in Hong Kong (where 95 is the mandated minimum) and withdrew the fuel from the German market last year.

Interestingly, the company markets 100-Octane petrol there to cater to modern car engines which are able to advance their ignition timing and exploit the high grade to produce more power.

By a similar token, the rarity of old cars on Singapore’s road is a factor which prompted the withdrawal of 92-Octane.

“92 was a low technology fuel,” says Eric Holthusen, a fuels technology team manger at Shell. “It was done for low technology cars.”