Diesel Fuel

[Neal]

Two threads, same topic. Let's use this one:

Diesel Prices Are Going Up Really Fast

We finally rough sketched our 2022 travel plans. We will be heading out of Florida in a couple of weeks. Yesterday we had to drive the F350 down to Ft. Myers (170 miles round trip). I noticed that diesel prices were about .15 higher down there so as we drove back I kept watching stations...

rvforums.com

 

[Neemer]

Just because you can, does not make it morally right !

That notion consumes an entire semester in business school.

 

[Rex Franklin]

It is a free market when one oil company can lower its selling price, then sell more product and maximize profits than the other oil companies.

The urge to make higher profits is certainly strong and can be a double edged sword but things would certainly be worse without free markets. If markets get controlled by rule-making, producers will simply stop producing because they lose money . . . remember 1974???

Rick

I remember 1974 very well !! Long gas lines ! What a pain that was !
Free market is the best system in the world. Promotes competition, which is good for the consumer.
However, when you have price fixing, free market does not mean anything ! I have owned several successful businesses in my lifetime, as partnerships, and as owner, and know how it all works.
You can not tell he that price fixing us not going on ! Refer to my first post.
Every oil company can not possibly have all the exact same costs to end up with the price of gas and diesel within 1 or 2 cents of each other.
Come on really.
If you believe that, I have this nice bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you. You can make a toll road out of it and make a fortune .
Price fixing, plan and simple.

 

[Fish]

I think we are just being ripped off , because they can and nothing will happen. We have to go to work and move goods across the US. Let’s face it, when you report your last years profits at $ 35 Billion !!!!! Does that not seem to someone that they are over charging people for gas and diesel ??? It’s the diesel that gets me. A by-product of making gas, yet it costs $ 1.00 more a gallon ! Additives my butt, they don’t cost that much !! Greed will get them one day ! Electric, solar, wind, the next thing , will put them out of business .
Maybe one day, they will have cars and trucks with solar panels in the roof, batteries in the floor and very little need to charge the batteries. The top of every tractor trailer rug could have some new super solar panel to keep the batteries charged and take it across the US. Plug your tractor into the trailer and keep your batteries charged up even more than the panels in your tractor . Tired of this high fuel price and something needs to be done !

I don't view diesel as a byproduct of making gas anymore than I view gas as a byproduct of making diesel.

A few years after I retired my union was having a hard time manning the refinery. They offered me a deal that if I would go up there to work I could still draw my pension at the same time. Since my job was in the heated and air conditioned sheetmetal shop making patterns for and then the aluminum covers for all the different insulated pipe fittings, tanks and such I didn't have to go out into the unit so I stuck around for a few years.

Since I'm curious I asked a lot of questions, one being why is diesel higher than gas? I was told by some old timers there that around 2010 the government enacted the sulfur standards on diesel and removing the sulfur was an expensive process.

 

[FL-JOE]

Rich is right, the feds requiring lower sulfur diesel (less pollution) plus .06 higher fed taxes on diesel (compared to fed gasoline taxes) led us to diesel staying higher than gasoline. This will never change.

 

[sanda]

I don't think diesel is a by product of gasoline refining.

Diesel fuel explained - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

What is diesel fuel and how is it made?

www.eia.gov

 

[Dona40]

When gasoline was first being produced, the only need for the by-product was heating oil. In fact, most farm tractors were built to start on gasoline and then you could switch over to kerosene or what ever crap was cheaper. Fast forward 100 years and after "educating" the public what a BTU was and that diesel has more of them than gasoline, Boom! Now you can charge more. See?

 

[Buly]

Something to plan for?

The United States is down to 25 days of diesel supply as a top White House official declared the stockpile levels to be “unacceptably low.”

Data provided by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that diesel stockpiles are at their lowest level for October in records that date back to 1993, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. EIA data show that the United States, as of Oct. 14, has 25.4 days of supply—down from 34.2 days of supply four weeks prior.

 

[Neal]

Please keep politics off the forum, we come here for peace and joy of our RV lifestyle which is escaping the madness of THAT. As to the diesel, it's out of our control. Keep RVing and living the great lifestyle. If you feel the need the plan accordingly checking on fuel availability. Instead of worry about diesel divert the energy in what you can do amazing today to enjoy your destination.

 

[sanda]

Please keep politics off the forum, we come here for peace and joy of our RV lifestyle which is escaping the madness of THAT. As to the diesel, it's out of our control. Keep RVing and living the great lifestyle. If you feel the need the plan accordingly checking on fuel availability. Instead of worry about diesel divert the energy in what you can do amazing today to enjoy your destination.

Oops sorry

 

[TheLooks]

My brother worked in chemical companies for 33 years. The product that they could not give away was.....propane. Look at what they are charging now for free by product.

 

[sanda]

My brother worked in chemical companies for 33 years. The product that they could not give away was.....propane. Look at what they are charging now for free by product.

I've driven by many refineries over the years. The flame you see coming out of the stacks is propane. They generate so much that they run out of storage capacity.

 

[TheLooks]

I've driven by many refineries over the years. The flame you see coming out of the stacks is propane. They generate so much that they run out of storage capacity.

But it is over $3.25 a gallon here in Tenn. right now.

 

[sanda]

But it is over $3.25 a gallon here in Tenn. right now.

Propane prices have always been tied to the price of other fuels. I used to heat my home with propane and would see massive swings in prices monthly.

 

[Rosy]

I've driven by many refineries over the years. The flame you see coming out of the stacks is propane. They generate so much that they run out of storage capacity.

Never had that issue at the refineries I worked at, though we did sometimes have to flare it on hot summer days due to high pressure in the storage bullets or if it was off spec due to water.