What the heck is happening with diesel prices?

[belfert]

What the heck is happening with diesel prices?  Gas prices continue to decline, but diesel prices are staying stable or even going up.  Diesel locally is 80 to 90 cents a gallon more than regular gasoline.  I checked Flying J's website and most of the prices are right around $4 a gallon.

I know winter is coming, but the price disparity between the two fuels is getting close to the all time highs for the last few years.  Diesel fuel was a little bit cheaper for my trip 6 weeks ago, but gasoline at the time was 20 or 30 cents a gallon more expensive too.  The spread wasn't near as high as it is now.

[artvonne]

  People keep buying it, thats why. If a large group of citizens could make a stand and sit back for a week, not buy any, not use any, the glut of oil that would amass, and the loss of income as a result, would be staggering. Prices would plummet, and stay down for a long while until they figured out how to regroup. In fact the repercussions of such an event could last for months, if not years, especially once people saw their new found power.

  Never happen though, so, nevermind.

[luvrbus]

Never going to change they predict 5 bucks a gals for diesel in 2012 Canada and Mexico export oil to us we turn around and export the finished product to country's all over the world,some of the exports wind back in the mid east as they own refinery's here.
Citgo exports 80% of the diesel made here some of it goes to Iran and Cuba and who knows where else supply and demand has very little impact stop the exports and prices will drop,suck it up the best is yet to come lol

good luck

[belfert]

The only way a mass boycott of oil would work is if people actually cut back on driving for the entire time of the boycott.  If you decide to postpone your trip until after the boycott or do it before the boycott you aren't cutting back on use of oil.

Boycotts of gas stations never work because people fill their tanks a day early or wait a day to fill up.  Nobody ever cuts back on their actual use of gasoline.

The original point of my post is asking why the heck the spread between gasoline and diesel is so high?  It wasn't so much about the price of diesel though it is too high.  It makes more angry to see diesel prices so much higher than gasoline than high fuel prices in general.

[luvrbus]

The new diesel cost more to refine than gasoline not like the fuel of the past quite a process making the new fuel average cost for refinery's to make the switch was a 1/2 billion I worked on one for Sun Oil

[Iceni John]

I read that this country exports diesel to Europe, because there's not enough diesel there to supply all their cars (most new cars in Europe these days are diesel).   This seems implausible  -  are there really tankers crossing the Atlantic laden with refined petroleum products such as diesel?   I suppose it could be true.   Whether the US does export diesel or not, it's still no justification to jack up the prices here.   As usual, the oil companies have this country by its short and curlies, and "government" is too spineless to enforce equitable price controls on them.   As far as I'm concerned they should all be nationalized, just like Pemex.   Yeah, dream on.

The local Chevron station where I can actually get my bus in and out yoyos its diesel prices up and down (OK, mostly up) irrespective of gasoline prices.   Diesel there went down to $4.05, jumped up overnight to $4.39 (!), slowly crept back down to $4.09 at which point I topped up my tank for the winter, then have climbed up again.   It's now $4.45.   All this time gasoline is holding steady, or even dropping slightly.   What gives?   It's a pity Costco doesn't sell diesel.

John

[belfert]

$5 a gallon would be about the point where I might have to park my bus and not use it.  Traveling 4,000 miles would cost $2,800 just for fuel.  My friends and I split the bill for fuel, but $400 for fuel would be the breaking point for some of them.  I know $500 to $600 for a week vacation is cheap some of them are living pay check to pay check.

I know that for many busnuts doing less miles can cut down on costs, but we are going to a national event.  There isn't an event that requires say 2,000 miles instead.

I would like to move to a place further away where I can have a garage for my bus, but fuel prices might put an end to that.  Why move if there is a possibility of no longer using the bus in the future?  My daily commute would be three times as long and my fuel costs would double.  (Some of my non-commuting mileage would go down I expect.)

I understand the costs of refining diesel have gone up, but the costs of refining didn't go up 20 or 30 cents a gallon in the past 6 weeks.  

[viento1]

There is a major shortage of Sulfur and that is the reason they came up with this time... They (not sure what that means exactly) Anyway, the boycott strategy has never worked but a town in Canada boycott the big oil companies and only filled up at small independent stations (even thought the product is from the same place). The results were excellent and it was organized on facebook and twitter.

Start tweeting boys.

Some said the same thing about cigarettes at $5 a package - funny thing is, they keep on smoking.

[Busted Knuckle]

Supply and demand it's the same ol' same ol'!

As long as diesel is in high demand it will fetch what ever it will bring.

The oil companies are not stupid they raise the prices here & there gradually and then when people start to slow down or stop buying at the places it's higher then they know what to price it at all over.
Once people get used to and accept that price they start all over again.

And also by the way FLYING J is not the place to check prices anymore.

Every since the "J" screwed up and invest many $ in oil stocks a few yrs ago just before it crashed and Pilot bought them out the "J" is the highest priced of all the "major" players in the "Travel Centers" or trk stops! (Pilot does this purposely to encourage loyal "J" customers to start using their other facilities as well! (it back fired on them for me as I avoid both now!)
 BK  

[Busted Knuckle]

Some said the same thing about cigarettes at $5 a package - funny thing is, they keep on smoking.

Well what do ya expect from people addicted to polluting their lungs, and living in a cloud of smoke?
  BK 

[luvrbus]

Wait till the tax write off for the oil co's go away lol  business is business and DC is DC.

It is not the oil co's fault your dollar is not worth nothing check out DC lol

[belfert]

I know Flying J is not the cheapest, but it gives a pretty good snapshot of what is happening.  For the most part they don't tend to cost any more than the truck stop next door.  You might find prices 10 cents lower in town, but you'll spend most of your savings driving around at 60 cents a mile.  Here where I live one station this week was charging $4.29 for diesel and $3.28 for gasoline.

At least one of the presidential candidates has said they would decrease gas prices to $2 a gallon if elected.  The only way that will happen is if we have a another serious recession or price controls are instituted.  Oil companies aren't stupid.  They would stop importing oil and gasoline from other countries and start exporting to other countries that will pay more than $2 a gallon.  Price controls would likely mean shortages of fuel unless we nationalized all oil companies.

[prevosman]

Without examining why diesel fuel costs what it does since I have zero chance of influencing the pump price I do wonder if people cannot afford to pay $XX why have a bus?

Parking the bus is the worst thing anyone can do. Even if we disregard the plummeting value that occurs when a bus is not used regularly and the ongoing cost of ownership whether it is driven or not at some point shouldn't some folks start thinking of the economics of ownership? I have paid as little as $.69 per gallon of diesel, and as much as $5.00 plus. It is what it is. So rather than take a cross country trip, maybe I choose to limit trips to 1000 miles round trip. If I cannot even afford to fill the tank, it is time to park it and do that major two year project I have been wanting to do, or just sell it.

These drink fuel by the barrel and we might be able to improve mileage by a few percentage points, but in the long run we have to be prepared to pay the price of fuel or cut our losses.

For those prepared to tell me how parking a bus eliminates the flow of money, I hope you are considering how mechanical things like to be used, how tires age, and are in fact live longer when exercised routinely, and how batteries age out over time, just like air bags, brake chamber diaphragms, and all the O rings in the various suspension components.

I'd like a 100 foot yacht, but I know I cannot afford the costs associated with ownership. I just sold a plane because before I flew the first hour each year I was exposed to well in excess of $10,000 in costs that could not be avoided. Combine that with the price of aviation fuel and all of a sudden I could no longer justify a plane.

Of course it does not help that Pilot Flying J own more travel centers than any other company by far so they have as much control over the market as the government has. You can bet the prices went up when Pilot bought Flying J. When they were competing fuel cost a lot less.

[luvrbus]

Mexico has a nationalized oil co they flock across our boarder to buy diesel and gasoline because it cheaper here
Pilot and Flying J are like every thing else here they are not owned by Americans but by the English.

I buy Exxon/Mobil or Chevron/Texaco both cost a few pennies more but you will never see me in a place like AM/PM (BP)buying fuel of any type.Walmart is not bad most of theirs comes from Murphy or Exxon

[prevosman]

Flying J PIlot or Pilot Flying J is owned by the Haslam family and is based here in Knoxville. It may have some outside investors, but it essentially is a family owned company. It is not owned by the English.