Diesel nearly DOUBLE the price of gas

[deezler]

Whilst waiting for a pump to open up at my local station the other night, it occured to me to document this current pricing disparity. I can't say I can ever recall one fuel type being HALF the price of the other. Really seems like total Bu!!**** for diesel vehicle drivers, frankly. It's not like the % breakdown of crude oil cracking can be altered very much, or that diesel demand is super strong while demand for gas fell off a cliff. So what's really behind the current disparity?

The guy in the brown F150 was busy excruciatingly draining the last 8 cents of fuel out of the hose into his tank. Despite being in the woods on some acreage, I don't live in the best 'hood. Lots of times at this local corner station, I pull up to the pump and see that the prior customer only bought 5 or 10 dollars of gas.... kinda sad.

 

[ponytug]

Well, it is the holiday season, and yes, nationally diesel demand is high.

Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update

Gasoline and diesel fuel prices released weekly.

www.eia.gov

You are lucky to have exceptionally cheap gas.

All the best, Peter

 

[deezler]

Just heard from a coworker that he found gas for $2.33/gal this morning (again, not in a great neighborhood). Meanwhile in our affluent cities and neighborhoods, gas is still $3.49/gallon. Wild disparities in pricing all over the region currently.

(it's not really luck...., it's choosing not to live in california LOL).

 

[old and tired]

Gassed up yesterday, $2.59 / gallon... I can hold off on buying diesel for a few months... mainly, we are not in the mountains in the wintertime

 

[MossRoad]

I just got done assisting the refueling of about a dozen diesel generators. The off-road diesel was down to $3.39 last week if buying 2000+ gallons, which we did.

 

[jaydee325]

Could be that gasoline mostly supports transportation. Diesel (fuel oil) on the other hand supports transportation as well heating homes and other buildings during the winter plus agriculture and construction.

 

[ericm979]

While they both start from crude, diesel comes off a different production line than gasoline. It's not like they can flip a switch and make less gas and more diesel.

I wonder if there are some diesel production lines that are "down for maintenance" like happens in California's isolated fuels market whenever the refiners want to bump profits up.

 

[Snobdds]

Drove by the Schlumberger yard, which is at the intersection of the BNSF and UP lines. The largest Schlumberger yards outside of Texas, and it was almost full of drilling rigs.

It looks like the Feds shut down the leasing again or put out leases that make no sense...even in $90+ oil environment.

Expect pain to continue now and well into the next few years. This includes natural gas.

 

[wawajake]

It has been at least 18 mths in Canada for extreme diesel pricing, so its not maintenance and its not time of year, it seems like greed to me !!!!

 

[bcp]

Compare state average prices:

AAA Gas Prices

Bruce

 

[scootr]

Just heard from a coworker that he found gas for $2.33/gal this morning (again, not in a great neighborhood). Meanwhile in our affluent cities and neighborhoods, gas is still $3.49/gallon. Wild disparities in pricing all over the region currently.

(it's not really luck...., it's choosing not to live in california LOL).

You can double my gas and I'm still not trading this 70º sunny day for what you got going there

 

[beckmurph]

March 10 2021. $2.799
December 7 2021. $3.339
March 11 2022. $4.599
June 8 2022. $5.749
December 15 2022. $4.689

 

[jk96]

Look into the mudflap app for diesel if they have station participating in your area. Free to use and big savings. .64 cents off a gallon currently at the station I use. Last week I filled my transfer tank and truck for $1.10 off a gallon on 120 gallons of diesel.

 

[mrmikey]

Ours in NS as of Dec-19-22 has gotten closer than it's been for awhile, Gas CAN$ 1.399, diesel CAN$2.052 per liter.
Works out to US$ 3.855 US gal for gas and US$ 5.67 US gal for diesel

 

[newbury]

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It changes, this was about 2 years ago.

And face it, a lot of drivers don't directly pay for diesel. Trucking companies, construction companies etc. charge the end user more for fuel. And often it's a "their cost plus x%".

 

[5030]

You gotta pay to play. I only buy off road diesel anyway and here in Michigan it's usually 60-75 cents less than on road, amd I write of the cost as a farm expense.

 

[not2old]

I wonder if it has anything to do with diesel being similar to heating oil which will be seeing very high demand in Europe this winter due to the war.

 

[2manyrocks]

Maybe there is a market pricing algorithm that tells them that they can charge for diesel vs gas? There was a bread truck filing up with diesel next to me. I asked the guy how much to fill? He just said it was a 50 gallon tank. They are just going to pass the cost onto the people that buy bread. There may be some market analysis that tells fuel companies that consumers who buy gas will reduce buying at a certain price level, but that there is more room to increase diesel prices because most businesses will just pass the cost onto their customers rather than cut back on buying diesel.

 

[travisbb]

Diesel prices are higher than last year in major part due to Europe replacing Russian diesel and in some part due to a particularly cold stretch of weather requiring more heating oil. This has moved a lot of oil east of where it would normally be going causing high prices pretty much everywhere in North America.

Diesel demand is also pretty unwavering because it's mostly used commercially where the increased costs are passed onto the end-consumer because no single step adds up to a large enough absolute cost to cut back. For example, fuel is a big farming expense, but doesn't add many cents to any individual restaurant meal.

Gasoline is mostly only used in personal vehicles where people can cut back some when prices are high.

Since the ratio of gasoline to diesel in a barrel of any particular type of oil is nearly fixed, that means diesel prices often stay high even as gasoline prices fall. If it was gouging then gasoline prices would also be high. Instead diesel prices are based on a mostly fixed demand where gasoline is priced based on a mostly fixed supply.

 

[Yander]

You can double my gas and I'm still not trading this 70º sunny day for what you got going there

I wouldn't live in sunny California if you gave me the entire state. I like the change of seasons and prefer to own the gun of my choosing. Not to mention whatever the next ridiculous thing that Gov. of yours decides to subject you all to.