Price of Diesel around the country ?

[DOWG]

I am an oil company executive and I drive a Cummins.



What is missing here is how the business works. What most folks don't realize is that "the big oil companies" do drill and own oil & gas wells, but that production is not sufficient. We import over 50% of what we use on a daily basis. Import means buy. Buy means market price. Market price yesterday was around $37 a barrel. A year ago, it was under $25 a barrel.



I drill and own oil & gas wells. I take a huge risk to do so. Dry holes have to be paid for with good wells. I sell my oil & gas to big oil companies at market price. When the price goes up, I make more money. When the price goes down, I make less. There is no price gouging.



Free market.



When the price of oil goes down to $10 a barrel, I don't see anyone offering to make up the difference.

 

[JCyrbok]

S/E lower Michigan

Anywhere from 1. 59 to 1. 89 depending on how hard you want to look.



J-

 

[D. Showan]

Dowg,



When some news event hits the air waves and the price at the pump goes up the same or next day thats price gouging.



Give us all a break. Don't try and rationalize to us your justification for making more profit when you can get away with it.

 

[Dkevdog]

I have a good friend who works in a refinery, I live in southern California- while it's certainly not Texas or or the Gulf Coast, I am no stranger to Oil production, drilling or "How" the business works. It's largely our own fault we're so dependent on imported oil, and we as a whole, Dowg yourself included, get taken advantage of for that reason far too often. Maybe if we'd have done the job right the first time, we wouldn't have to be going back to bomb more oil fields, freak out the rest of the world, and skyrocket prices.



HOWEVER... ... ..... When a small refinery fire loses a few million gallons of gas, and the price jumps 20 cents the next day... ... ... ... ..... Give me a break... . Call it whatever you want, crying over spilled milk, free market, I call it getting SCREWED by the oil man.



Kev

 

[onestackdram]

... ..... But I do happen to notice that Texas enjoys much lower prices on fuel than average.

Ok in defense of Texas (trust me not a fan of the state) in my recent trip to Houston to visit a friend of mine. ( I drove) I paid on avg. of $1. 60 in KS, then on avg of $1. 64 in OK, and finally as I hit TX it rose as I got futher south avg. of $1. 70 in Dallas, and avg. of $1. 85 in Houston. Now thats just going by fuel stops along interstates. The funny part was I almost paid $1. 90 outside of Houston until I looked upand saw a damn refinery 1/2 mile down the same road.



With all that said, I do think that it is rediculous that everytime something happens of National interest (i. e. war, strikes, ANYTHING in the middle east) the price atleast here in KC jumps anywhere from $. 15 to $. 20 a gallon. It just makes me glad that I signed a long term contract with my local co-op so that I only pay $1. 35 for # 2, and $1. 15 for off-road. But I cant exactly take those tanks with me EVERYwhere I go.



Just my $. 02



Russell

 

[John Berger]

It's $1. 63 here in south Georgia. It's been as high as $1. 66



Can you say price gouging.

 

[stevek]

Here in Central Ohio I see anywhere from 1. 64 one day to 1. 89 the next... I find myself driving 61mph to get the mpg way up there as of late

 

[dusthomps]

Cost of Diesel

Yesterday diesel was up to $1. 76 in SE Minnesota, today it dropped to $1. 69... . seemed like a good opportunity to fill up, so I did.

 

[R-N-R]

$1. 859 in Michigan yesterday... tomorrow's forcast... .

 

[JBlock]

Vancouver, Washington over $2.00

That says it all, it a ripoff as unleads is $. 10 under that.

 

[Royk]

What kills me is that diesel in my area is $. 32 more than regular unleaded.

 

[JR2]

I am sorry but you guys take a way too simplistic view of how the oil business works. I don't pretend to know much about it but I can tell you a few things. .



1. Just because there is a big refinery down the road does not mean that it actually makes diesel or gas for that matter. Losts of those refinerys make chemicals that might go into gas, but not the final product. Here in AK there is ONE refinery that makes unleaded gas. It sells all the unleaded gas there is and controls the price. It might mix in some additives for different stations, but it makes ALL the gas. The same is true for diesel here, one refinery makes it... they set the price. What this means is when that little refienery down the road burns down, you are hosed because the other refineries in the area are making chemicals for plastic milk jugs and polyester pants, not diesel.



2. When there is cold weather in the NE and central US the price of diesel goes up because lots of homes in those areas use diesel (home heating oil) to heat there houses. Anyone check the weather in Vermont today, how about New York??



3. When Venezuala when on strike it cut the supplies to US quite a bit. Even if the refineries wanted to catch up today, they could not... it takes time for oil to get where it needs to go. Venez might be up to full production, but it will be weeks before all the refineries have the amounts of oil they need to make what we need. Its not like they process a barrel at a time, its like thousands of barrels at a time and they have to make the components of each product and then mix them into the final product. Another thing to consider is that oil has different grades, some oil makes good gas, some makes goos asphalt. It may take a month to get all the grades of oil they need to make all the components they need to make the diesel we need. So just wait a while and all will be fine.



4. The proposed war in Iraq might have something to do with the diesel cost. Afterall JP4 (jet fuel) is basically diesel. Do you not think that the US military is stockpiling jet fuel and diesel at an astounding rate right now...





5. The stragetic oil reserve - Our president bought 400 million barrels of oil last year and put them in the oil reserve... . read

this article for some good info.



6. Don't forget that when an oil company drills for oil they use lots of diesel in the process... . some to run the generators and in our case here in AK to make sure the well does not freeze. Last night we disposed of a temporary freeze protection of 350 bbls (14700 gallons) down a disposal well... . that is 14700 gallons you will never see again... .





Don't get me wrong, I don't like to pay $1. 78 a gallon either, but there are reasons above and beyond price gouging for all of this... . the oil business is not as simple as you think. What a real shock, go watch what gasoline futures are selling for.....

 

[MLee]

fuel

what about the north slop oil?? Alaska-- is it still going to Asia? they get a much better price for it there. what about all the oil wells that they have shut down, that is just sitting? i have noticed that ONE in TEN are usually pumping in the same area. thy also say that diesel price is effected by heating oil production, is there still heating oil users out there? i thought that just about every one used natl. gas or propane now a day.

THANX it just bugs ya when they say--We are going to get a task force to investigate these rising prices, and then it dies right there. (must be the lobbyists)

just my penny's worth.



Marv.

 

[ramsalot]

This HACKS me OFF, just made a . 20 a gallon hike overnight. 1. 89 ... 2. 10.



I say GOUGING!

 

[KKaiser]

I'm paying 1. 89 through my cardlock staion as of last week. That's up from 1. 51 I was paying a month ago. I don't feel screwed however, as my wife's unleaded is at 1. 98. I think Pacific Pride is an excellent way to go. I'm in the central California foothills.



Kent

 

[Camara]

I have seen it as high as $2. 249 MA/NY. Averaging $1. 98. 9 locally. $57. 00 to fill my truck Wed. morning. Probably close to that today. I know that no matter what you produce nowadays it costs more. I average 7 tanks of fuel a month. The problem is that I can't go back to my boss and say to him that Diesel Fuel almost doubled this year so I need more money in my check at the end of the week so I can get to work. My bosses can't go back to a municipality after thay have been awarded a job and say to them it's now going to cost 20% more because of the price of fuel. When a machine eats 100 gallons a day and you have 7 to 10 pieces on a job it adds up quick. Plus with my son still in high school I have to feed his truck too! So now it gets to the point that 20%+ of my pay goes just to going to and from work and school. It makes it harder to pay the mortgage, go food shopping, and the like. I think that is the major problem everybody is complaining about. But no matter what happens, the only ones that will do good through this whole fuel thing is the lawyers :-{}

 

[Cliffman]

1. 81 here in the garlic capital of Gilroy California.

 

[JR2]

. " Face it, your cost of doing business just went up. Take it in the shorts like the rest of us do or become more efficient.

That is exactly what the oil companines in AK (and the rest of the world) have been doing for years... . Every single well they try to do cheaper and faster than the last one, if they can't do that they don't "take it in the shorts", they leave and look for oil in places where its cheaper to do business, like Russia or Africa or South America or anywhere but the US. We really have no one to blame but ourselves. If the US did not have suce strict environmental laws then it would not cost so much to drill and we would get more oil out of the ground here in the US.



Heck want to lower the price of gas in the US, tell your congressmen/women to vote to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. .

what about the north slop oil?? Alaska-- is it still going to Asia? they get a much better price for it there.

That I am not sure about, but what you have to remember is that to sell oil you have to have someone who wants it... Alaskan oil from the Prudhoe Bay field is crappy low API stuff, makes real poor gas/diesel, but there is lots of it... its not always in demand and I can not blame the oil companies for selling it where they can. They are not doing anyting you would not do to make $$. Selling stuff to the highest bidder is a way of life.

 

[SJRsCUMMINS]

Does someone know why the cost of diesel fuel is = to or greater than the price of premium gasoline? Here in SE PA diesel is around 1. 90 per gallon

 

[jjohn]

$1.81 along the Hi-way Firestone Colorado to

as low as v$1. 69 depending on where you buy.