Engine Oil: Difference between Mineral Oil and Synthetic Oil

In short, when comparing mineral with synthetic oils, the mineral oil is the cheaper version with inferior properties and the synthetic oil is the more expensive option with better properties.

While both, mineral oil and synthetic oil can be produced from fossil oil, the difference is in the mixture of the base oils and the use of additives. The better the used base oils are, the better are the physical and chemical properties of the oil. This is reflected, for example in better flow properties of the oil and the prevent of foaming and corrosion.

Mineral oils are comparatively inexpensive and can be easily produced in refineries by distillation of crude oil. They consist of various hydrocarbon compounds and as a rule, they can only be used as single grade oil.

Compared to this, the fabrication of synthetic oil is a lot more complicated and expensive, although even here the foundation is crude oil. But while mineral oil is consisting of many different compounds of hydrocarbon, premium synthetic oil consists of synthetic produced similar compounds, which are nit occuring in this form in the crude oil. This results in particular, in better properties of synthetic oil. For example, synthetic oil can also be used as a multi-grade oil in summer and in winter. Even within the synthetic oils, there is a great variety, depending on how good the underlying base oils and additives are.