Diesel Status

[rvjimmy]

Diesel was $5.20 in our area before the shortage talk started. It was $4.70 yesterday, if this is the trend I'm hoping this shortage talk keeps continuing as the more they talk about it the more the price is going down!! 👍👍😁😁

[PJStough]

Originally Posted by Bottombare

Nowhere have I heard anyone cogently explain how we went from being oil independent for the first time in my lifetime, to where we are today.
Are we supposed to believe that it's all because of the Coronapocalypse?

Yes, it is all because of Coronapocalypse. We were "energy independent" because demand for gasoline and diesel was so low because of the shutdowns and layoffs, meeting that demand was easy, and subsequently oil companies lost millions if not billions of dollars. Remember, that at one point in 2020 crude oil was selling for -$40.00 per barrel! Hard for oil companies to make money at that price! Their reaction to almost no demand was to stop drilling for oil so from November 2018 to August 2020 drilling for oil declined by 80%, going from over 880 oil well drilling rigs operating in the USA in November of 2018 down to only 180 rigs operating in the USA in August of 2020. Oil companies cant produce oil in the future, if they stop drilling for it!
Also, in 2020 oil companies shut down 5 refineries in the USA. Even if there was enough crude oil now, the US is short of refining capacity, and to top it off in 2017 one of the largest refineries in Houston was sold to Saudi Arabia!

In addition to these issues, Russian and Saudi Arabia are doing their best to manipulate the crude oil market to their advantage.

Now the good news. Since the low in drilling for oil in August of 2020, there has been a steady but slow increase in drilling for oil in the USA, going from just 180 oil well drilling rigs operating in the USA to right at 600 now, so now there are more than triple the number of oil well drilling rigs operating in the USA than there was at the low point in August of 2020.

Hopefully, at some point the oil companies will have decided that they have made back enough money to drill more or otherwise increase production to further drive down crude oil prices, and therefore drive down gasoline and diesel prices.

[radar]

Meh. The demand thing will sort itself out. Right now every single day there are 26000 new vehicles hitting the roads of the world and none of them have gas tanks, crank cases or catalytic converters. That will be north of 50,000 per day every day within two years and that is just the start of the curve. At some point there will be lots of gas and diesel sloshing around the market for heavy haul applications. I’m sure the price will adjust accordingly.

Jmho.

[Patrick 8200]

All I've heard for the past few weeks is "There's a turkey shortage!", yet every time I've been to the store, there seems to be be freezer cases full of turkeys. Hit Walmart again yesterday and noticed not only are there a crap ton of turkeys, they dropped the price to $.95/lb.
We just back to Phoenix from a 7,000 mile road trip to New England and back and diesel prices are lower now than back in May when we left.

[Monkey Run]

Never thought I'd be wishing for $4 diesel but it's almost $6 in the taxmainian state of NY. EVs are fine, except, they use fossil fuels to make electric, so the problem is transferred to another area ie infrastructure, generation and transmission.

[radar]

Originally Posted by Monkey Run

Never thought I'd be wishing for $4 diesel but it's almost $6 in the taxmainian state of NY. EVs are fine, except, they use fossil fuels to make electric, so the problem is transferred to another area ie infrastructure, generation and transmission.

I think it depends on the country or region on how power is produced for electric vehicles. Certainly where we live it’s pretty much all hydro. I have no idea what it is in New York where you live.

But really, at least presently, most EV’s are either cars, SUV’s or light half ton trucks. I don’t think there will be a threat to personal diesel vehicles for awhile yet. But that is JMHO.

[Sherpa Vern]

I have just planned all of our fuel stops for a 4,300 mile trip from NW Washington to Key West, FL. The average cost per gallon for the trip is $4.60/gallon, using the OpenRoads card and yesterdays prices.

The following are the average cost per gallon by state:

WA - $5.026
CA - $ 5.364
AZ - $4.853
TX - $4.112
LA - $4.013
FL - $4.475

Planning in advance helps to relieve any stress about when, where and how much fuel will cost, allowing the focus to be on a safe and enjoyable journey.

[twogypsies]

I would guess once on the road you're not going to cancel a trip because of fuel prices. Decide before you leave if you want to pay or not. Then enjoy the trip and stop worrying about it.

[UTTransplant]

Diesel prices are definitely going down. Local prices in my town in Iowa have dropped a dollar in the last month. While gasoline has gone down too, the differential between gas and diesel was over $2 a gallon a month ago. Now it is just over a dollar, and seems to be still going down. The sky is NOT falling.

[bigb56]

Originally Posted by Patrick 8200

All I've heard for the past few weeks is "There's a turkey shortage!", yet every time I've been to the store, there seems to be be freezer cases full of turkeys. Hit Walmart again yesterday and noticed not only are there a crap ton of turkeys, they dropped the price to $.95/lb.
We just back to Phoenix from a 7,000 mile road trip to New England and back and diesel prices are lower now than back in May when we left.

Having ben in the grocery business for many years a couple things, frozen turkeys are kept in storage for a long time, from 1 to 3 years. The frozen turkey you buy this year probably did not come from this years kill. Also the 3 biggest days for turkey sales are the five days leading up to Thanksgiving (most folks don't have room to keep one in the freezer so they wait till just before the holiday).
Fresh turkeys are a whole different matter and a shortage of those will reflect in the market immediately with higher prices and less availability.

[RossWilliams]

Originally Posted by radar

I think it depends on the country or region on how power is produced for electric vehicles. Certainly where we live it’s pretty much all hydro. I have no idea what it is in New York where you live.

But really, at least presently, most EV’s are either cars, SUV’s or light half ton trucks. I don’t think there will be a threat to personal diesel vehicles for awhile yet. But that is JMHO.

I don't know where you live, but there are few if any places in the world with excess hyrdo power that is going to waste. There isn't any extra capacity to be used to provide the additional demand created by electric vehicles.



I own a PHEV and I call it our coal burner since the extra power to charge it comes from our local coal plant. Our local utility gets 10% of its power from its solar array, but that is all used up every day. I support electric vehicles, hence our PHEV. But the immediate impact during the transition to solar is to increase demand for electricity and extend the life of coal and natural gas plants.

[radar]

Originally Posted by RossWilliams

I don't know where you live, but there are few if any places in the world with excess hyrdo power that is going to waste. There isn't any extra capacity to be used to provide the additional demand created by electric vehicles.



I own a PHEV and I call it our coal burner since the extra power to charge it comes from our local coal plant. Our local utility gets 10% of its power from its solar array, but that is all used up every day. I support electric vehicles, hence our PHEV. But the immediate impact during the transition to solar is to increase demand for electricity and extend the life of coal and natural gas plants.

Yah for sure. Like I say. Depends where you live. We have lots of extra hydro capacity here and there are more hydro facilities coming online over the next two decades as needed.

I think New York State has more hydro coming online from Quebec in 2025 as well. But yah. Different areas will deal with additional demand in different ways. Coal is rare in my country and getting rarer. Natural gas and to a lesser extent renewables seem to be replacing it. I’m sure the grid will continue to evolve.

Cheers.

[Jchemie]

Social media is evil.

[Tha_Rooster]

Just went from north Georgia to Fort wilderness no problem with diesel just glad I didn’t need to buy any with Florida prices.