I read somewhere that the reason diesel is so high is that now that we have ULSD, the export market for American diesel opened up. Prior to that, our high sulfur fuel couldn't be used in Europe. Now we ship our high quality stuff there and raise the price here because the supply is lower!


From http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/...0News/1314227/

EXPORTS BOOST PRICES

Today, however, observers say exports to Europe and to countries with expanding economies are major price factors.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with the Oil Price Information Service, said the U.S. in recent months has been exporting between 300,000 and 500,000 barrels of diesel fuel a day to Europe, where most vehicles are diesel-powered. In exchange, European nations have been sending about 1 million barrels a day of surplus gasoline. And more diesel is being shipped to nations with expanding economies, he added.

"The simple matter is that the rest of the world has been willing to pay more for diesel than the U.S. has, and refiners have exported to Europe, southeast Asia, and South America," Kloza said "That's why they export excess gasoline to the U.S. But that also means that those tankers have been coming back to Europe with American diesel on board."

 

yup, this has been talked about at length. we're also sending nearly 1 million barrels of diesel per month to mexico, and we just sent some impressive shipments of distillate to china, because their supplies were low due to their colder than average winter. that shipment to china is believed to have caused the mysterious shortage, that caused our diesel prices to jump by .20-.40/gallon recently. btw, be prepared for another jump in diesel prices, as we are shipping even more to china, as the country is stockpiling all the diesel they can get their hands on, due to the earthquake. as for gas, there's tons of it- so much that refineries are cutting back production in a big way, so exactly why is the price nearing $3.80/gallon and climbing?

 

You better go buy a whole bunch of that $3.80 stuff because it just cost me $4.83/gal this morning! SF Bay area...

 

i meant $3.80 for gas. i haven't seen $3.80 diesel in quite a while! (pretty sad statement, isn't it)

 

Sorry, I see that now, LOL.
I only have a 20 mile round trip to work 4 days a week so I can still handle the prices but it still sucks.

 

I have about the same distance in driving 5 days a week, but my budget is getting tighter and tighter like most others. So I parked it in favor of my wife's old '98 VW Cabrio, get's 28-29 mpg and the 12 gallon tank lasts me 2 weeks. The wife BTW has a new to us Volvo V70 XC AWD that averages about 25-26 mpg around here and it's 17 gal. tank last 2 weeks also. Just drive the Cummins when absolutely necessary or when I really miss it .

Now I'm not in the oil biz so this may seem ignorant but, I just wonder why the US has to pay the same amount for diesel as other countries when that diesel is coming from the US? Shouldn't we get some sort of discount for being the manufacturer/refinery?

 

I make good money and don't have a car payment or a mortgage/rent and the fuel is getting noticeably harder to fit into my budget. Seeing as I'm financially stable in ways that many aren't, I fear there is going to lead to a sizeable economic smackdown.

 

This URL shows the oil and oil related products we export every day but it does not show the amount of Bio diesel that we export to the EU every day:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pe...0_mbblpd_m.htm

This URL shows whom we export our crude oil products to each day including Venezuela: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pe...X_mbblpd_m.htm

This URL shows the Monthly Mexico Diesel Exports from 1993 to Feb 2008:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mdiexmx1M.htm

U.S. Biofuels Subsidies: Not for Farmers, but for Europeans
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalca...s/?mod=WSJBlog

Demands for crackdown on biofuels scam, aka Splash and Dash
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...iofuels.energy