Use Less Foreign Oil
The Easy Way

[Around AMSOIL, it is common knowledge that Texaco had planned on purchasing AMSOIL 10+ years ago in response to the growing market for synthetic lubricants, but AMSOIL was not and (as discussed recently at the AMSOIL Direct Jobbers convention) is not for sale.]

Interestingly, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, as a condition of its approval of the merger of Chevron and Texaco, required Texaco to divest its 46% interest in Equilon (Shell Oil owned the other 56%). Included in Equilon is the Texaco Express Lubes business, which consisted of a reported 750 facilities in 42 states and is the second largest branded quick lube chain in the United States. Equilon Enterprises LLC - Equilon Lubricants, manages the Texaco Xpress Lube operation. To satisfy the conditions imposed by the FTC, Texaco sold to Shell Oil its interest in Equilon, which makes Shell the owner and operator of the Texaco Express Lube business.

Then in early April, 2002, as anticipated by the Lubes-n-Greases article, an announcement was made that Shell Oil was purchasing Pennzoil-Quaker State, parent company of Jiffy Lube, which operates over 2,200 owned and franchised quick lube outlets, by far the largest such operator. Before the Texaco deal Shell was already in the quick lube business with their Shell Rapid Lubes operations. The combining of the three operations will now total over 3,000 facilities.

Adding to the international flavor of the quick lube business, CITGO, a $12 billion-company owned by Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the national oil company of Venezuela, operates the CITGO chain of owned and franchised service stations and quick lubes. CITGO is reportedly the third largest supplier of foreign oil to the U.S. and a member of OPEC. With the recent failed coup in Venezuela, where the military ousted the President and then within days allowed him to return to power, you start to get a better idea of how much our energy supplies are under the control of foreign powers. It was reported in Newsweek that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is an ally of Fidel Castro and is widely seen in Washington as hostile to U.S. interests whose erratic leadership threatened U.S. oil supplies as well as efforts to crack down on guerrilla forces tied to drug trafficking and terrorism in neighboring Columbia.

What does all this mean to you and me? Well, you can join the campaign to cause a “price war”, but where are you really going to buy your gasoline or diesel fuel. Even the no-name service and convenience store and stations buy their oil from the major suppliers in a ‘round about way.

The best thing to do is to just not use as much. You say you can’t get away with just driving less? Then take the steps necessary to use less by running a more efficient vehicle. I have had customers change their brand of motor oil to AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil, and this action alone gave them 10% better fuel mileage. Extending the drain to 25,000-miles or one-year, whichever comes first, can reduce the amount of motor oil used from 25 quarts of oil to just 6-quarts in a typical car run 15,000 miles a year (where oil changes were previously performed at 3,000 mile intervals).

Carry it one step further and change over to AMSOIL Premium Automatic Transmission Fluid and Severe Gear Synthetic Gear Lube as well. Also use AMSOIL fuel additives. My own 2000 Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummins Diesel went from 16 to 17 MPG during the first 6,000 miles to over 20 MPG (highway or city driving) since I made the full change, and I use both the Diesel Concentrate Fuel Additive and Cetane Boost in every tank of fuel. That is more than a 20% increase!