why is diesel so expensive then gas?????

BUT supply and demand play a MUCH larger part in the setting of prices for such commodities as fuels. And it is likely that many of the fuel subsidy programs have been gradually phased out, allowing producers to charge whatever they can get away with; can you say Exxon-Mobile?

Speaking of which, the whole ExxonMobile profits debacle, while newsworthy, should be put into perspective. They made about 9% profit margin on their record profits. Compare that to Intel, Microsoft, AMD, etc. etc. etc. If those companies don't get double-digit profit margins, the stockholders go ballistic. And health insurance companies? They SET their profit margin at 25% (!!!) and raise premiums and reduce benefits and kick dogs and steal candy from babies and whatever else they have to do to get that margin. Where I work (a little product development outfit), if we got double-digit profit margins we'd be dancing in the street. I'm not defending Big Oil; I still think they're a bunch of crooks. But it's important to keep things in perspective; yeah, they made a pile o' money, but they also SPENT a pile 'o money getting that precious lifeblood to you. The oil business is incredibly capital-intensive, as their margins illustrate.

No matter. At least we don't have to pay what Europeans pay. We'd be eating nothing but tortillas and beans (or beans and rice, or just plain beans, depending on your part of the country) just to put enough fuel in the tank to get to the store to buy more beans!

Okay, enough ranting. I'm the first to admit I don't REALLY know why diesel costs more, I'm just saying what I've been told by many reliable, educated, independent sources.

Happy Tractoring!

c.

The cost of producing a commodity (in this case diesel) is only partially responsible for the final price charged to consumers. Rather retail prices settle at whatever the end users are willing to pay. Consequently when demand goes up, so then does the price.

Keep in mind the demand for diesel has skyrocketed in the past 20 years. Just look at the sheer volume of heavy trucks on the interstates today. Add the tens of thousands diesel powered school buses, UPS and FedEx trucks, diesel P/U’s etc which 20 years ago were virtually all gassers. You get the idea…

Further adding to this demand is increasing demand for diesel’s close relatives heating oil and jet fuel. And in our area clean air laws are causing many coal-fired power plants to convert to fuel oil. Also the new low-sulfur emission requirements for road diesel increases production costs. These all conspire to further run up demand, and hence prices.

Bottom line: People are buying more and more of the stuff, and they are willing to pay higher prices for it. So diesel is now more expensive than premium gas. Only if people reduce consumption and buy less (and a LOT less….) will you ever see the price begin to drop.

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Another factor: I don’t know where you live, but here in NY state (our new state motto: “land of taxes”) the revenuers have slapped exceedingly heavy road taxes on all motor fuels, including diesel. The gives us the dubious honor of paying of some of the highest prices for diesel anywhere in the US.

I love my F250 Powerstroke, but I'm driving it less and less on account of the fuel cost (last fillup = $102!)

Of course there are also fewer refineries that make diesel than gasoline and that is why for a while after the hurricanes the diesel prices were out of sight.

When crude oil is refined, it's separated into various products, so a gallon of crude will make some gas, some kerosene, some diesel, some motor oil...

And the diesel is heavier than the gasoline so it takes more oil to produce the same amount of diesel than gasoline.

The process you refer to is fractional distillation. This is where raw crude is separated into it’s individual hydrocarbon components. A gallon of any particular crude will result in a fixed quantity of each output fraction. (The general distillation output categories - light to heavy - are gas, naptha, gasoline, kerosene, diesel/jet/fuel oil, lube oils and heavy residuals - bunker oil, asphalt, etc.)

However in modern refinery operations, after fractional distillation the outputs are run through processes such as catalytic cracking, thermal cracking, catalytic reforming, alkylation, unification and others. These processes break down and/or reform the various crude constituents into whatever end product is desired. So it’s pretty much up to the refinery operator what end product(s) to make from the incoming crude feedstock.

Recognize the above is way over-simplied. However the underlying concept here is valid...

The diesel molecule is larger, with more carbon bound in the chains, which is which diesel exhaust has more carbon in it than gas. Which is also why diesel gives better mileage, because each molecule has more oomph than gas. Highly technical terminology, I know, but that's about the extent of my knowledge.

c.

I tried looking on google to find out exact numbers but all I got were a few vague references saying that it does take more oil to produce diesel than gasoline.