In houston Diesel has been around $2.70 for a couple of months, gas has been $3.00, last week gas started falling and is at $2.41 now diesel went up to $2.84. I know it takes less to process diesel than it does gas, whats the deal

 

I'm wondering that myself.....?? Gas here (SW VA) is as low as $2.50 but the lowest diesel is $2.80...??? back in the day when I worked on these beasts for a living diesel was always way cheaper than gas and that was one of the selling points to the wife to buy my new truck, I guess I shoulda checked prices before opening my big mouth....

 

Same here, I live 30 mins north of Dallas and around here Gas is around 2.40 and diesel is around 2.90 . I was also wondering the new sign on diesel pumps saying that This diesel could damage 2007 and newer diesel engines, whats this about?

 

It's all the theory of supply and demand...the oil companies realized that if they raise the price of diesel it won't matter much since most heavy equipment requires diesel and people will keep buying it even if it is higher priced...thats my .02 anyways...

 

No disrepect intended here, but I get so tired of the "Supply and Demand" story.

This can only really be true is there is PROOF that the demand has somehow lessened.
When did our demand decrease in order to lower the price of Gas but not #2? right along with it, I missed that?
Furthermore,..........apply this simple "Supply and demand" theroy to ANY other business.
I'll give an example:
If Hersheys chocolate bars could sell at $.75, then one day they raised the price to $1.20, why in the world would they ever drop it back any lower with a steady or increasing demand?

 

I think oil is the biggest rip off, right there with insurance. The reason gas is falling is because of the terrorist threat with the airlines recently. They thought people were going to stop flying again and airline travel would slow down. Then all of a sudden the price of a barrel of oil went down over 2 dollars in 24 hours. Thats why the gas price is falling. It's pretty bad when it takes a terrorist threat to bring oil prices down. Why diesel isn't falling just like gas, I don't know? It should be. Last year it was the hurricanes that had the gas prices up, this year there hasn't been anything like last year, gas prices are still up. And the oil companies are still reporting record profits.

 

I have to tell ya.Up here in Washington st. I'm paying $3.40 a gal. for #2,& gas is about $2.95.& the kicker is that I live within spitting distance of TWO refineries that produce #2,& jet fuel.

 

Last month diesel was 3.02 a gallon in Chicago while gas was up at 3.23. now diesel is 3.19 and gas is 2.85

 

I understand your frustration along with everyone elses. I can't say that I feel to bad for you people in Houston. You mite wan't to take a drive to Idaho. The gas price is $2.87 and the diesel is $3.45. I wouldn't complain about your price for diesel. If I could get diesel for the price you are paying. I would fill the truck up and then poor some out on the ground. (just because I would feel gilty having to pay so less)

 

I live in northern Alberta, Canada, within an hours drive of the oil sands, and about 2 hours from some major refineries (Edmonton, Alberta). gas here is 99.9 cents per liter and diesel is about $1.10 per liter. Thats about $3.78 per US gal for gas and $4.15 per US gal for diesel. Can you feel my pain?

 

Gas is coming down and diesel has too. I bought the truck in July paying $3.09/gal. It spiked to $3.49/gal about two weeks ago. I bought a tank across the state line about 30 miles away and I paid $2.99 a gallon for it on Tuesday. It's still 40 cents per gallon more than gas. Remember we are fueling two wars right now as well. That WHOLE machine runs on diesel too, and we refine our own fuel.

 

Same aggravating prices in central Texas. Gas today was $2.48 and diesel is $2.89...... Just kind of pi$$es me off.

 

Ok, but nobody has yet explained why diesel, which reportedly takes less work to refine crude into, now fairly suddenly costs more than gasoline.

 

Somebody mentioned because of the war, but I don't believe that. My thoughts are: Just drive through any good sized city and look at how many diesel powered vehicles are now on the road as compared to maybe 5 years ago. I think the fuel producers have those numbers from the large sale of diesels recently and know that they can now charge what they want for it due to the numbers of them on the road today.

 

Supply and demand is the bottom line....demand is pretty steady, but what changes is supply, in other words, inventory. When demand goes down or refining capacity goes up, the price goes down. There's more diesel on hand. When demand is up (summer driving season, more goods are moved during the spring/summer months because the roads are open and moving, no weather related delays, and folks spend more money on "stuff") inventories drop. When inventories drop, the price goes up. When the refiners catch up with deamnd, inventories go up and prices drop. It's pretty cyclical. That's why the price goes up when a refinery goes down, we're on a fairly short margin as far as excess refining capacity goes.

Wait until X-mas time.....you'll see prices drop in November-December as the refiners start socking away inventory. In the first quarter of the next year the price will creep up again when the major refineries go down for periodic maintenance (inventories will drop while the plants are down).

On the bright side, I saw #2 at $2.99 here in town this morning