How many gals of gas can you get out of a barrel of crude oil?

Question

How many gals of gas can you get out of a barrel of crude oil?

Answer 1

A barrel of oil is 55 gallons when refined yields about 26 gallons of gasoline (51.4%).  There are many other products that also result form the refinery process as noted below:

Distillate Fuel Oil 15.3%

Jet Fuel 12.6%

Still Gas 5.4%

Marketable Coke 5.0%  

Residual Fuel Oil 3.3%

Liquefied Refinery Gas 2.8%

Asphalt and Road Oil 1.9%

Other Refined Products 1.5%

Lubricants 0.9%

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

It isn't a constant quantity. Some crudes naturally yield more gasoline per barrel than others; also, if demand for gasoline is higher, the heavier fractions can be "cracked" to make more.

Notice the comparative prices of gasoline vs diesel; often, gasoline prices are much higher than diesel, but eventually diesel catches up, then passes the price of gasoline.

Prices reflect demand and supply; diesel consumption is more constant than gasoline, when producers increase the gasoline supply, gasoline prices drop and the price of diesel goes up. Diesel prices should be more stable, but changing from diesel production to gasoline production affects the price of both.

Answer 3

Actually a barrel of oil is 42 gallons, and on the average makes about 19.5 gallons of fuel, besides many other products

Answer 4

Depends on the purity.  Not all crude is created equal.

Answer 5

You get about 19.5 gallons of gasoline. The remainder falls into heavier and lighter distillates such as diesel fuel/home heating oil (they're the same), kerosene, and chemical feedstocks. Below is a link to an excellent page from the Department of Energy on how crude oil is processed into usable form. It's a "kid's page", but I'm in the oil business and I refer to this all the time! Scroll down to where you see the barrel and just below are some of the products petroleum is used to create.

Interesting note:  We actually get about 44 gallons of product from a 42 gallon barrel of crude due to "cracking" heavier products to yield lighter fractions such as gasoline and #2 oil (home heating/diesel fuel).

There's also a link to other DOE brochures I've found useful.