Gas Prices

[KARNUT]

Kroger’s in Montgomery Texas. 3.59 yesterday. 3.49 today. Weird.

[KARNUT]

3.47 Kroger’s in Montgomery Tx

[diyer2]

$4.35 85 oct. 

[txab]

$3.59

 

[richard wysong]

Diesel $5.42 at the truck stop on the hi-way

[Grumpy Bear]

Out and about yesterday on a long Saturday drive I passed a lot of Shell stations. My preferred, so I pay attention. Lot's of small town Illinois so not six stations in three blocks like the city. 

 

Everyone of them over a radius of say 100 miles had regular at $4.19 but one which was the one closest to home at $4.15. However Premium pricing varied greatly between 85 cents over regular to $1.50 over. I'm not counting the price of the station with the lowest regular so the reference is the same for the remainder and all within the same brand. However the spread discrepancy holds across all brands.  

 

@txab, any thoughts on that? 

[richard wysong]

Question for you Grumpy, why is diesel so much more than gasoline? Seems to me that it may be slightly a little less refined than gas and it doesn't have 10% alcohol which presumably lowers the price of gas

[KARNUT]

15 minutes ago, richard wysong said:

Question for you Grumpy, why is diesel so much more than gasoline? Seems to me that it may be slightly a little less refined than gas and it doesn't have 10% alcohol which presumably lowers the price of gas

Around 2008 if memory serves they took sulfur out. That was when diesel went up. 

[Grumpy Bear]

31 minutes ago, richard wysong said:

Question for you Grumpy, why is diesel so much more than gasoline? Seems to me that it may be slightly a little less refined than gas and it doesn't have 10% alcohol which presumably lowers the price of gas

 

Swap costs and supply/demand balance. When a barrel comes out of the ground the entire range of products are present but not all at the same percentage. 

 

Breakdown of Refined Products

The following table summarizes the approximate output from a standard 42-gallon barrel of crude oil:

Product Type	Gallons per Barrel	Percentage of Total
Gasoline	20 gallons	45%
Diesel Fuel	9 gallons	21%
Other Products	13 gallons	31%

 

Most of that diesel figure is 'straight run' or cut from the barrel. Gasoline 'cut from the barrel runs 0 to 20% at the crude. So in the crude unit there is more diesel the gasoline, usually.  The full refining experience however gives the tabled values. Ego there is half the diesel than gasoline after the 'first crack' That could be an FCC unit, or Isomax or....

 

Those units take heavy products and break the big ones into little ones. Those numbers are harder to get hold of but directionally it ends up the same. 

 

Really light products are very profitable. Ethylene and Propylene to name two. Those are cracked from slightly heavier feeds like NG and Propane and Ethane. The cracker harshness determines the feed for distillation. Those feeds come from less profitable products like diesel and gasoline. 

 

So...there is a swap cost. How much market is there TODAY and what crude am I running TODAY..... what is my process capable of always. 

 

There is this as well. The USA uses allot more gasoline than it does diesel so in the cracker the process is tilted to gasoline production which....limits supply of diesel. OTR uses the most and it has different requirements than automotive and agricultural.  Limiting auto products. 

 

You are correct however. It is less refined, just less of it. Allot less. 

[Grumpy Bear]

46 minutes ago, KARNUT said:

Around 2008 if memory serves they took sulfur out. That was when diesel went up. 

 

It added a cost layer to an already limited production supply. True that. 

[KARNUT]

5 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

It added a cost layer to an already limited production supply. True that. 

I figured you would know about it.