The quality of our fuels and the reliability of our supply chain processes are at the centre of supporting our customers’ journeys

According to the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEW), “poor quality fuel can damage the environment, vehicles and our health. Fuel quality standards seek to reduce fuel pollutants and emissions, facilitate the adoption of better engine and emission control technologies and improve engine operation.”

The Mission

Out of specification fuel can damage sensitive emission control systems installed in modern vehicles as well as render a vehicle and/or equipment inoperable in extreme instances. Apart from the impact of the vehicle downtime, there are typically high costs associated with recommissioning vehicles and equipment affected by poor quality fuel.

Quality and Reliability

At Ampol, we test our fuels from the moment they are refined and all the way until they reach our customers, so you can be confident of the quality and reliability of our products.

These tests include the various requirements to meet the Australian Fuel Quality Standards as well as multiple testing of key properties such as density, appearance, flash point and electrical conductivity. These tests are repeated throughout the journey of the fuels from the refinery to the terminal to assure the integrity and the fuel’s quality.

In particular, this testing is repeated to ensure that external contaminants have not been introduced during handling and transport that can adversely affect the fuel’s performance and impact on the running performance of customers’ vehicles and equipment. These contaminants can include foreign particulate matter, water and even cross-contamination from other products that may have been transported in bulk tankers.

Any fuel products that fail testing are quarantined pending further investigation by our Fuels Quality Team. Rectification of these products typically involves blending, filtering or degrading for use in non-fuel applications.

Under the Fuel Quality Standards Act 2000, it is illegal to supply out of specification fuels where a relevant Australian Fuel Quality Standard exists.
The Australian Government regulates petrol and diesel quality sold in Australia to ensure that poor quality fuels are not sold in the market.

The Action

Throughout the supply process we test our products multiple times:

• Petrol products are tested up to 38 times
• Diesel products are tested up to 47 times

The Result

Formulated and tested for tough Australian conditions

It’s not just the quality of the fuels that we test. Ampol Australia has an extensivelocal research and development program involving laboratory and customer trials of fuel products to validate their performance in real world conditions, using Australian registered vehicles.

We do this to ensure the products keep delivering on their performance promises and so we can develop the additive technology to better meet the needs of
diverse industries, vehicles and equipment.

Our rigorous testing program includes passenger vehicles, light and heavy commercial vehicles, off-highway construction and mining vehicles, generator sets and bespoke customer equipment.
We measure fuel consumption and vehicle emissions under controlled, laboratory environments to prove the performance of our proprietary additives.

We also capture fuel consumption data from vehicles running under normal customer operating conditions to understand the real world performance of our fuel products.

1 “Regulating Australian fuel quality”, Regulating Australian fuel quality - DCCEEW, retrieved 23/4/24
2 Number of tests include full certification at the refinery, key parameters tested during shipping (loading and discharging), and confirmation testing at terminals after mixing, batching and/or pipeline transfers.