Why is diesel so high priced?

Question

Why is diesel so high priced?

Answer 1

The US ships a large amount of diesel to Europe, this compounds the high crude oil prices.  This increased demand for export raises the prices above gasoline even though it is a lower grade  distillation than gas.

Answer 2

Yeah, good question.

Not all diesel vehicles are better on fuel than petrol cars.

We have 2 diesel worktrucks, and each of them would easily use $300 a week of diesel.

Its just another way to hit the transport industry. Not only road tolls, high prices for insurance and registration, we also have to pay more for fuel.

Without trucks the world would stop.

Answer 3

The refining process is adjusted seasonally to accomodate the product demand. From each barrel of crude oil, you get a variety of products, including gasoline, heating oil, diesel oil, and a number of light and heavy distillates. During the winter, the process is adjusted to produce more heating oil and, since diesel is very close to heating oil, diesel. In the summer, it is gasoline that they maximize. With the attention focused on gasoline this year, the refiners have been trying to maintain a high gasoline mix, at the expense of diesel and heating oil. Since we are using all 85 million barrels of oil that is pumped each day, they have few alternatives to maintain the levels of gasoline that we are demanding. By either pumping more crude or consuming less gasoline, we can get the mix back to the earlier levels and diesel will once again be cheaper than gasoline.

Answer 4

1 tax...2..newer emission requirements...was 50 parts sulfer per million ...now 15 ppm...a lot more refined

Answer 5

It is not.  In terms of available convertible energy per dollar, it is still cheaper than gasoline.   For example Mercedes Benz says diesel is 20 to 33% more efficient than gasoline.  My personal experience is that it is more like 33 to 50%.

Lets take 20% as the number, that means at $4.00 gasoline, diesel would have to be $4.80.  Locally we are at $4.00 for gas and $4.51 for diesel.  If you say 33%, the numbers are $4.00 and $5.33.