Virtually all fuel in Northern Alberta comes out of the same storage tanks at the Petro-Canada Refinery in Edmonton - the ones you see to the South of the Yellowhead Highway in the east end. The truck driver has no input other than loading regular unleaded, mid-grade unleaded, premium unleaded or diesel. Computers control everything else, and the posts above are correct in that the differences between one service station's product and another are the relatively minute quantities of additives that are injected at the time of loading. Each "brand" has separate storage tanks and injection lines for their "secret formula" of additives. Mid-grade is simply a blend of regular and premium gas, and some stations have separate tanks for it so that it is blended at the time of loading, but most of the newer stations only have two storage tanks and therefore it is blended at the pump. Costco, FasGas, etc. simply load the basic gas from the storage tanks with no additional additives.
Shell does have it's own facility in Edmonton and therefore has premium without ethanol. Fuel is a commodity like anything else, and if someone like Costco can negotiate a better price from Shell as opposed to Petro-Can, then they too will have an ethanol free product, but Shell will not sell them their additive, and therefore it will not be the same premium you can buy at the Shell next door.
Keep in mind you have to have a refinery to produce gas, and to my knowledge there are three in Edmonton (Petro-Canada, Shell and Esso), one in Saskatchewan (Co-op in Regina) and two in BC (Chevron in Vancouver and Husky in Prince George). There are several upgraders around, but these are the only ones producing gas.
Shell does have it's own facility in Edmonton and therefore has premium without ethanol. Fuel is a commodity like anything else, and if someone like Costco can negotiate a better price from Shell as opposed to Petro-Can, then they too will have an ethanol free product, but Shell will not sell them their additive, and therefore it will not be the same premium you can buy at the Shell next door.
Keep in mind you have to have a refinery to produce gas, and to my knowledge there are three in Edmonton (Petro-Canada, Shell and Esso), one in Saskatchewan (Co-op in Regina) and two in BC (Chevron in Vancouver and Husky in Prince George). There are several upgraders around, but these are the only ones producing gas.
not the first time either
