300D
Veteran Member
Gas prices have dropped super low. I have seen $1.49 up here in Maine. Will diesel start to follow? Still at $2.76. Can anyone explain exactly why diesel prices fluctuate offset/behind from gasoline?
I had a long commute (about 1 1/2 hour each way) for a few months in 2000.Near $1 per gallon? Wow.
Haven’t seen it that cheap for a long time. Maybe in the 1990’s.
I would argue just the opposite. Gasoline has had a surplus for quite a while but now the bottom has fallen out for the gasoline market.Mr. Chill said he saw $2.19 in MA near the RI border. I haven't seen anything that low yet. Around me prices have dropped about $.20. Someone here wrote that a drop in gasoline production will reduce distillate stocks that are used to make diesel, so diesel prices may not fall much. But that's stuff I don't fully understand.
Maybe high farming states have less tax and more price competition. Around Georgia it seems truck stops have higher prices than other busy stations.I think we are agreeing that diesel prices may not fall as much as gasoline, but for different reasons. And as I noted, I don't fully understand how refineries work. Maybe I don't understand them at all.
I've been driving all over North America for years and I believe, with some supply exceptions, fuel prices vary mostly because of tax structures in each state. Drive from Massachusetts to Florida and you'll see prices fall, rise, and fall again. Illinois and CA have very high fuel prices, typically. Southern states have lower prices. But with the exception of states where they are closer to supply, it's not the product cost that's driving price variations. At least I don't think it is.
The price per gallon for ULSD was only supposed to go up a few cents per gallon. I believe ULSD is what the international market wants. When US rules were changed allowing export of finished product the price went up with demand. Europe probably still overproduces gasoline and sells it to the Eastern United States, making gasoline cheaper.I'm no expert on how we arrive at the price of our fuels either. Think that distillates are influenced by global markets more so than gasoline.
Paid $1.83 gal yesterday here in DFW for ULSD.
Where have you found recent data? I believe the demand for diesel was strong already and that refineries were maxing it out.The demand for distillate hasn't cratered nearly as much as the demand for gasoline has. Most refineries have a fair amount of flexibility over which end products they produce from a barrel of crude oil. Many of them are reconfiguring right now to produce a higher proportion of distillate. There's getting to be such a huge surplus of gasoline that the refineries are running out of places to store it.
Distillate demand is down slightly year over year, but it has been pretty consistently for most of the last year. The distillate demand chart is the last one on this site:Where have you found recent data? I believe the demand for diesel was strong already and that refineries were maxing it out.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained...cts/refining-crude-oil-inputs-and-outputs.php
Thanks.Distillate demand is down slightly year over year, but it has been pretty consistently for most of the last year. The distillate demand chart is the last one on this site:
https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/weekly/distillate.php
If it is anything but 40 it may be believable. Most suppliers will be at least several points higher than 40 just to stay off the bottom line. 51 was probably a good number at the time. With the situation and prices dropping I can understand why they would change to stay competitive.This place used to advertise 51 Cetane and man I got good power and mileage with my ALH and 7.3L Excursion but the owner started getting fuel from another source, it was a BP station before.
Thanks for the info
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