Gas prices expected to drop 50 cents by summer

[Camping4fun]

I'm still waiting

[new rver]

why doesn't diesel go down like gas ? they say gas will drop 50 cents but they didn't tell ya they will raise it to 5 bucks first.
safe travels bob linda & missy

[Renipladlo]

Diesel actually won't go down much.
See this link: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_gasoline_can_be_made_from_one_barrel_of_c rude_oil

It explains how oil is "cracked" and what the yield is per barrel and it’s a general number. Now today, there are more cars and trucks which are powered by diesel engines, note, Dodge, Ford and GM to name a few. Diesel MH's are also the preferred engine choice because the power to weight ratio is very high and you actually get more energy out of a gallon of diesel than gasoline. That work amount is measured in BTU's, and someone can hunt up that chart and see its equivalent breakdown. But the bottom line is out of a barrel of oil, only about 9 gallons of diesel is achieved.

I believe the USA (energy.gov) uses 20 Million barrels of oil daily on average, some math wizard can figure out how much of that yield is diesel. And don't let anyone currently say, we are short of oil, the world is awash in oil, it is speculation and greed which is driving up the price. Several reports have arisen which show Saudi Arabia has reduced production because there is so much oil sloshing around.

Refiners also have to make a profit, as well as the gas stations who sell the stuff. ABC or one of those stations did a segment a few evenings ago, interviewing a station owner and he said he would not have a gas station as he is slowly losing money and is close to closing. Years ago, gas stations had service bays, which were how they actually made money, now that type of service is mostly gone, and that profit stream.

Costco, Wal-Mart and Kroger as well as others use the gas stations as loss leaders because you then go shopping, to get food and stuff, and that is where they make their money. Flying J/Pilot and those guys actually have to make profit on each gallon they sell to stay in business, and some of those companies own oil fields, refineries and the associated distribution systems. Flying J went bankrupt two years ago, partly to overconfident expansion plans and when, oil prices collapsed and Pilot bought them at that time. It’s taken that long to integrate those two different companies and get the RV Reward Club back on track, if you don’t know about that, check out their web site and the associated forum here on the main page.

FWIW – Honda makes a CRV diesel which they sell in Europe which runs on clean diesel (Less than the 15PPM of sulfur we have in our fuel) which gets somewhere in the 40 MPG range. They won’t bring the car to the US until we reduce the sulfur lower than present. The other side of the coin is sulfur lubricates the valves (like lead used to for gas engines) and engineering solutions would need to be developed so the valve train is not damaged with those lower numbers. I personally treat my diesel fuel about every third tank to keep a little extra lubricant in those valves. I believe the fuel mileage can be increased for large diesel engines, and many companies are working on those solutions. This is all I know, and I am defiantly not an expert.