Why is diesel fuel $.80 more per gal than gas?

[Winterblues]

We are paying $3.69 for the cheap gas (87 octane) and $4.51 for diesel fuel (Number 2) and it takes quite a bit more refining to make gasoline from oil than it does to make diesel fuel. Why is there such a large discrepancy? Is it to sock it to the nation's truckers or ??? what can be the ulterior motive here?

[IndianaJones]

1. low sulfur. nt.

[Winterblues]

7. The law regulating sulfur content is several years old

This price difference is something relatively new..

[IndianaJones]

8. proposed in 2006 as a standard. transition to be complete by 2010. nt.

[Robbien]

2. The way I heard it is

Most refineries are set up for gas. Very few refineries are set up for diesel. Economies of scale.

[Burma Jones]

3. Diesel Fuel is pretty much the same as Fuel Oil

So, as the temperatures get lower, more #2 stock will be sold as Fuel Oil.

[LostinVA]

6. Except diesel shot up AFTER the main buying season

[SacredCow]

4. The newer ultra low-sulfur standards are partly to blame...

It's fairly easy to make diesel fuel with sulfur content of 50 ppm max. But to get it below 10 requires a good bit of extra refining that is not very cost-friendly.

[snappyturtle]

5. Mr. Snappy has always contended that diesel is cheaper to refine

and having a diesel truck for his business it's gotten very expensive to fill up. I think it's (the 'it' being price of fuel in general) is * adminstration efforts to squeeze every last drop of profit they can before leaving office.

[Javaman]

9. The simple answer...

because less diesel is produced from a barrel of oil than gasoline.

From a single 42 gallon barrel of oil 19.5 gallons of gasoline is produced where as 9.2 gallons of distilate fuel oil is produced.

and if you take into account that only 4.1 gallons of jet fuel is produced then you can also understand why it's expensive to fly.

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter08.html

[bullwinkle428]

10. One word - IRAQ! The military presence there has been causing

a spike in demand since the Chimperor initiated his Excellent Adventure nearly 6 years ago. Look at the prices for the two types of fuel over the course of the last several years.

Here are some "official" reasons from the U.S. DOE website...

"Question: Why are diesel fuel prices higher than gasoline prices?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Historically, the average price of on-highway diesel fuel was usually lower than or close to the price of regular gasoline. In some cold winters demand for distillate heating oil pushed diesel fuel prices higher. Since September 2004, diesel prices have been higher than regular gasoline prices almost continuously for several reasons:

High worldwide demand for diesel fuel and other distillate fuel oils, especially in Europe, China, India and the United States, and a tight global refining capacity available to meet demand.
The transition to lower-sulfur diesel fuels in the United States is affecting diesel fuel production and distribution costs.
The Federal excise tax on on-highway diesel fuel is 6 cents per gallon higher (at 24.4 cents/gallon) than the tax on gasoline."

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ask/diesel_faqs.asp#diesel_higher

[bullwinkle428]

11. Edit - duplicate post