Gas Oil

Gas oil is known by a few names, but one of the more popular names is red diesel due to the red dye marker that was added to gas oil from the 1960s to help authorities to quickly check if a vehicle was being run on gas oil.

The reason for this is because red diesel and white diesel (also known as road diesel or just diesel) are essentially the same fuel, but taxed very differently. The white diesel you see available from petrol stations throughout the UK is taxed at a far higher rate in line with petrol, whereas red diesel (gas oil) has a far lower fuel duty applied to it.

This makes it very tempting for many diesel vehicle owners looking to save money, to buy and use it in their vehicles. However, it is illegal to use gas oil on public roads, hence the need to use the red dye markers in order to spot any illegal use on public roads.

You may have noticed and wondered if gas oil had anything to do with the fuel known simply as “gas” in America or maybe “natural gas” which is used to heat homes and business in the UK. In short, they’re all different products, so lets start with the latter two products first and then we’ll get back to gas oil.