Why is diesel so much more expensive than unleaded?

[merwin]

It's a cheaper fuel, right?

Redmond, WA (just east of Seattle) this morning... Unleaded 1.85/gallon, while diesel was 2.50/gallon

Price gouging?

[Padraig18]

1. Cost of production, mainly. n/t

[merwin]

3. But check this site, that shows costs involved

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp

Taxes, distribution, and refining add up to just over 50% in both (granted, diesel is a few percent higher). Not enough to justify the price difference.

[Blue_State_Elitist]

2. It's cheaper here in socal...

strange.

[Book Lover]

4. Whaaa?

Here in SF Bay it's usually about 5-8 cents cheaper than 81 octane.

[merwin]

5. I was flabbergasted! I needed fuel though, so i had to pay.

[mermaid]

7. 81 Octane??

WTF??

Does that shit even BURN??

:wtf:

Lowest I have ever seen was 86 Octane at Sunoco, a super-cheap-shit gas. Most Regular Unleaded is 87 Octane. At least, it is in Texas.

[Book Lover]

8. Yeah, for the land of the open road

California won't sell gas over 91 octane... Maybe it's just the SFBA.

[mermaid]

9. WTF???

We can get 94 Octane here in Texas....

[Book Lover]

10. Yep

Then again, maybe someone from SoCal or the Inland Empire can correct me if you can get over 91 elsewhere.

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. Please note that higher a Octane rating actually means the gas

burns slower Higher Octane ratings work best in high performance engines because they burn slower and therefore allow for more complete combustion. More complete combustion is more efficient, thus better fuel economy and more force produced by the explosion in the combustion chamber.


Again, any Petroleum Engineers that might be reading this, please correct me if i am wrong.

[mermaid]

18. No, You Are Correct

That is why you get better gas mileage with a higher-grade gasoline.

You get more MPG if you use super as opposed to Regular...but you pay more for it.

The trick is to find out what the difference is, and determine if you are more econoical burning the cheap shit or the high-grade fuel.

For my specific car, the cheap shit worked out to be a better cost/benefit ratio. Unless you take into account that the higher-grade stuff burns cleaner, thus fewer deposits, and maybe less mechanical troubles down the road...but, in strict terms of miles per dollar, my car does better for the regular gas than the super.

It does worst on mid-grade. Weird, huh?

[BikeWriter]

6. Uh, it has to do with supply and demand...

Demand for Deisel and Gasoline track relatively closely, but there is a "glut" of deisel in the summer due to Gasoline production and a Shortage of deisel in the winter due to Home heating oil production. So Deisel prices in the summer tend to be 10 cents cheaper than Regular gasoline and 10 cents more than regular in the winter (or more depending on the severity of the winter in the northeast)
http://www.worcestergasprices.com/forum_msg.asp?category=1169&topic=43199&page=1&page_size=30

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. State taxes, mainly

Diesel USED to be about half the price of regular gas until the states figured that they were losing a whole shitload of money by not taxing it enough. Remember, most heavy trucks have fuel capacities up to and sometimes exceeding 250 gallons. As a driver myself, I often put on 200 gallons at a time. Even though cars far outnumber trucks, his fact couldn't be ignored by the various states. I have traveled from Florida into Texas in the last 2 days and the price variation is 13 - 17 cents for Diesel. I'll be in SoCal in 2 days and Diesel will probably be better than 2 bucks a gallon as opposed to $1.87 or so here in Texas. When Diesel powered cars took off in the 80's, it made the missed revenues even more obvious.


Question to the Petroleum Engineers that might read this; Is it not true that the difference between Diesel and Kerosene is truly very little? Don't they come out of the same temperature range in the Cat Cracker?

[merwin]

17. Taxes on Diesel and Unleaded are pretty much equal

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. Sure. Now. Wasn't always so.

n/t

[jmowreader]

13. The price of diesel is dependent on the price of three other fuels

There are five closely-related fuels: diesel, K-1 kerosene, Jet A, JP-8 and heating oil. (Jet A and JP-8 are basically kerosene but they're better filtered so that trash in the fuel won't cause the plane to fall out of the sky.) They come from the same "part" of the crude oil--gasoline is a more volatile fraction, hence doesn't affect the price of those five fuels.

In the wintertime, heating oil and K-1 are more in demand, hence less diesel is made and the price goes up. In summer when people travel heavily, Jet A is more in demand, hence less diesel is made and the price goes up. And in the spring and fall, when truckers need fuel to haul summertime merchandise and to haul Christmas seasonal, more diesel is made and the price of Jet A goes up. JP-8 doesn't really affect the price of the other fuels because the main user is the government and the government will pay whatever it costs to get the product.

So essentially you're seeing the wintertime price increase. Which is price gouging, but they get away with it because eventually it comes around.

[merwin]

14. Yeah, but last week it was 40 cents cheaper!

and weather here is oddly hot (all of the ski areas around here have been closed for weeks)

[mermaid]

19. It Takes Time For Conditions To Reflect That

They produce what they think they will need...and obviously someone planned for a colder winter than we ended up getting. so there was a surplus of heating fuel produced. and less diesel.

I think.

Shit I don't really know, but that seems to make sense. I mean, our gasoline prices, for example, take a little time to react to the price changes in crude...as well as supply problems take a while to affect us...and a while after the problem is fixed before prices go back down.

I suspect something similar is occurring with diesel.

I wouldn't drive a diesel vehicle, anyway...aren't they REAL SERIOUS putt-putt machines? I dunno about you, but I like to DRIVE...not ride around in a golf cart that can't do better than 30 MPH.

[B Calm]

15. Have you noticed how many trucks are on the highways?

There is a lot of money to be made, and they don't care what it does to the economy..

[merwin]

16. I drive a Jetta TDI, that I bought because of it's better mileage

and end up making up the difference in fuel costs. Crazy