Strange fuel purchase last night.

[jackhartjr]

Hi folks, came out of Naples, FL yesterday.  Got to Walterboro, SC, whipped in the WalMart for diesel fuel.  When I checked prices in SC, (Not WalMarts prices) yesterday morning they were running about 3.52 to 3.60.  At WalMart it was 3.38, 3.35 with a WalMart card.  I thought, Hey fuel really came down.  Nope, it was in the 3.68 range the rest of the way through SC.
This morning it is 3.63 plus throughout SC..

Wonder how it was 20 to 30 cents lower in Walterboro?

Jack

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Jack,

.65 cheaper then Jersey..... might be worth cruising to S.C. to fill up!  naaaaa...

Nick-

[TomC]

Diesel- $3.95 in California now.  We not only have the 15ppm ultra low Diesel, but we also have low aromatics in the fuel for our own California blend fuel.  Nice!  Good Luck, TomC

[Kwajdiver]

Tampa Bay is $3.62 to $3.75




Bill

[FloridaCliff]

Jack,

If Your Murphy's is like ours, they adjust the price up or down on the new delivery, not the barrel price like so many others thieves, who call themselves retailers.

Ours here was 3.36 about a month ago, I took the opportunity to fill up, stayed that way for about a week. next load was up at 2.48, now 2.57.  They don't move that much diesel so I have noticed the price is slow to move in either direction.

Always a nice surprise to find a deal!

Cliff

[Sean]

Diesel- $3.95 in California now.  We not only have the 15ppm ultra low Diesel, but we also have low aromatics in the fuel for our own California blend fuel.

Hey, Tom, you should zip down south of the border to fuel up.

We just paid $2.07 per gallon in Mexicali, and that's for the good stuff -- LSD (rather than ULSD).  We're heading back to the states tomorrow, and you can bet I'll be topping off the 350-gallon tank in San Luis Rio Colorado at about the same price before I cross back into Arizona.

FWIW.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[Busted Knuckle]

Jack & others too,
As an observation (we use Murphy's quite a bit too!), we have found 2 things that make a Murphy's have way lower prices than their neighbors sometimes. 1) is if that location just recently started carring diesel and they want to draw attention to the local customers to it, & #2) as pointed out above by Cliff is if they don't sell alot, sometimes they'll drop (or keep) the price ridiculously low to draw customers and once they feel they have a regular base at the average useage for that location they'll slowly raise it back up to or even slightly above local prices! (our local one @ Fulton, KY did because we and several truckers were buying so much, but we started going to the local fuel stop that is usually HIGH but was actually lower than Murphy's for about a month, now things are back where Murphy's is about 10 cents cheaper which is about par here!)
FWIW  Just my personal observation!   BK 

[Lin]

I didn't realize that prices were that different over the border.  When we move, we will be about 20 gallons away from Mexicali--round trip 40 gallons, so it will not pay to drive there just for fuel.  However, we have some friends in that area and could take a fill-up detour when we visit them.  Maybe it would be worth having an extra removable tank we could put in a bay.

[Nusa]

If you're bringing back fuel other than in the factory tank, remember to declare the extra tanks to customs or risk the consequences. Get receipts for the fuel purchase. So long as it's for personal use, your duty-free exemption covers a lot of fuel at ~$2/gal, but you certainly could exceed it with large tanks.

[Sean]

If you're bringing back fuel other than in the factory tank, remember to declare the extra tanks to customs or risk the consequences. Get receipts for the fuel purchase. So long as it's for personal use, your duty-free exemption covers a lot of fuel at ~$2/gal, but you certainly could exceed it with large tanks.

We crossed back into the states yesterday, at San Luis.  Very few RV's cross here, so, naturally, we were inspected.  And because Odyssey always attracts attention, no fewer than three CBP guys had to traipse through.  Other than confiscating our eggs, we had no trouble. (Side note:  be sure to declare all your produce, meat, and dairy, no matter where you bought it.)

While Louise was inside with the working stiffs, one of the head honchos (I don't understand CBP rank insignia, but if he had been military, the insignia was that of a major) started chatting with me about the bus.  At some point, he asked what we had paid for diesel in Mexico.

I told him it figured out to $2.07 per gallon (which, by the way, was consistent everywhere we went on this trip), and he allowed how as he was going to have to get himself an extra tank for his pickup truck and start buying south of the border, as the $3.70 he was paying in Arizona was killing him.  He asked me how big out tank was and I told him 350 gallons.

At that point he said "Wow, I'll bet you topped it off while you were down there" (or something very close to that), and I basically said "That depends -- will I owe duty if I say 'yes'?".  His answer was a flat "no" -- they do not care how much fuel comes back in in permanently installed tanks.

I believe, technically, that they can asses duty on any fuel you bought in Mexico, but, clearly, that's not one of their objectives at the border.  Likewise, we had more than a dozen bottles of wine and liquor, which they could easily have assessed duty upon (you are allowed only one liter of alcohol per person).  They asked if we had brought them from the US to begin with, and took our "yes" response at face value.  (We did point out that the wine in Mexico is terrible, which got a laugh out of them.)

In any case, even with a full 350 gallons, at $2.07 per gallon we wouldn't exceed even a single personal exemption ($800), and our joint exemption of $1,600 would leave room for a lot of blankets and sombreros.

-Juan
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Sean, [I mean Juan]

Do you think Mexico has less taxes on fuel or is just less expensive to purchace for Mexicans?

Nick-

[luvrbus]

Nick, you never know about Mexico last year in June they were coming to the States to  buy gas beacuse it was about 35 cents a gal cheaper

[Sean]

Do you think Mexico has less taxes on fuel or is just less expensive to purchace for Mexicans?

and

... last year in June they were coming to the States to  buy gas beacuse it was about 35 cents a gal cheaper

Well, they are still coming to the states to buy gas, because gasoline is cheaper here in the states.  It is diesel, at the moment, that is the other way 'round.  (BTW, don't ask for "gas" in Mexico, or you will be sent to an LP station.  It's "petrol", or better yet, ask for it by brand name "Magna Sin."  And LP gas in Mexico is all butane, not propane.)

It's hard to say why the ~$1.50 per gallon disparity.  It's probably a combination of several factors:

• US refiners are having to do more to the fuel.  ULSD, for one thing, which doesn't exist in Mexico.  (Ironicaly, this makes Mexican fuel better for our older two-stroke.)
• Supply and demand.  On a percentage basis, the Mexicans use more diesel than the US, so a greater percentage of their refinery production goes to diesel than to gasoline as compared to US.
• Taxes certainly play a big part.

Remember also that Pemex is a nationalized company.  Like any public utility, they are considered part of the country's infrastructure, and are less motivate by profit and answering to shareholders.

(It is important to note, BTW, that, while Pemex is nationalized and sets all the fuel prices, the stations are all independently owned, and some of the operators can be rather shady.  Definitely watch them work the dispensers, to make sure the meter starts at zero, etc..  Our last Pemex stop was actually "self service," which is a rarity in Mexico.)

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com