Turning Natural Gas Into Oil
DECEMBER 15, 2014
How do you turn natural gas into a liquid, much less a motor oil?
Making motor oil from natural gas may sound like magic. It certainly is not easy and is a highly complex process with many stages. But it can be done thanks to some brilliant minds, innovative technologies, and because Shell had the confidence to invest in the vision of revolutionizing lubricant performance.
In the 1970s, Shell began to look at other sources of energy besides crude oil. And based on an abundant worldwide supply of natural gas, Shell began studying it for the many opportunities natural gas presents to develop a full synthetic motor oil. Watch our scientists discuss the origins below.
Evolution of PurePlus Technology™ Gas-to-Liquid Process
Natural gas is also very clean and essentially free of many of the contaminants found in crude oil. When you start with pure natural gas, you end up with a base oil that is purer than a base oil made from crude oil. We call this PurePlus™ base oil, and the process by which we create this pure base oil is called PurePlus™ Technology. The revolutionary process of taking natural gas to build the exact motor oils we want is the biggest breakthrough in synthetic oils in 40 years.
PurePlus Technology™ turns the process of creating Full Synthetic motor oils upside down. Rather than refining long-chain molecules from crude oil, PurePlus Technology™ builds bigger molecules from much smaller ones. Doing so gives us a base oil that is 99.5% pure. When combined with our high-performance additives, we get Pennzoil Platinum® and Pennzoil Ultra Platinum™ with PurePlus Technology™, Full Synthetic motor oils designed for complete protection without compromising any one area. Watch the full story below.
How Does Shell Make PurePlus™ Gas-to-Liquid Technology for Pennzoil?
After four decades of research and development, we can now offer first-of-its-kind Full Synthetic motor oils that start pure and are designed for complete protection. These are the best synthetic oils from Pennzoil, and they enable experts like Ferrari, Maserati, SRT® and Team Penske to push their engines to the limits of performance.