Diesel is now only 25 cents more than gas

[VW Jon]

Has anyone noticed that diesel has closed the gap from a high of about 90 cents difference, to 25 cents as compared to the price of gas? Any ideas as to why?

[VW Jon]

Anyone think diesel will be below gas in a few months? Reasons why?

I thought that with the change to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel would keep diesel far higher than gas.

[82vdub]

Here, unleaded $1.94 and diesel $2.21, which is a pretty small spread. I also heard that the price of gasoline was supposed to slowly rise in the next month. I have no clue, but I'm happy it's fairly reasonable, if you call $2/gal fuel reasonable..........

[VW Jon]

The price of oil has fluctuated plus or minus around the $40 mark for several weeks, so it will be interesting to see the reasons why gas will increase, if it does.

[Harry]

So, today, Saturday, several stations went up to 1.99/gal RUG, and we still have diesel, at 5 or 6 stations, at 2.09/gal diesel. Since my old '83 Quantum TD gets about 46.5mpg on winter fuel, and my wife's gas '89 Fox gets about 34mpg, I like it. Hope the diesel stays down for a long time.

[vanbcguy]

Around here diesel is cheaper right now... Diesel has been steadily falling for the past month or so. Today I saw diesel as low as 83.1/L while RUG was 95.5/L pretty much everywhere.

[JRM]

Portland Oregon area:
Unleaded @ $1.79
DIesel @ 2.19

I just returned from the portland auto show, i was really wanting to see the new subaru boxer diesel and the acura tsx diesel but was told from both honda and subaru that plans to bring them to USA are on hold due to poor public intrest and higher diesel prices compaired to unleaded.
I found the new VW clean diesel, a few people looking at it but i did notice that most cars on display all had the larger engine option- typical USA mindset.

[lyeinyoureye]

Has anyone noticed that diesel has closed the gap from a high of about 90 cents difference, to 25 cents as compared to the price of gas? Any ideas as to why?

Just the usual change in refinery spread.

Here's what is happening: The margin or spread for the refiner, which is the difference between crude oil costs and wholesale diesel prices, was 65-cents per gallon earlier this month. Now it's down to 35 cents.

Meanwhile, refiners were actually losing money on gasoline sales early in January. But they're working to change that and briefly boosted the margin to 35-cents per gallon.

[Harry]

lyeinyereye and all,

Interesting about the spread and the seasonality of diesel. I'm wondering about this idea.

First off, how long can you store diesel and have it remain ok? I have 4 or 5 50 gallon barrels with lids and they still seal and a pump.

What would it be to buy a couple of hundred gallons of diesel in the summer, at low price and save it to use in colder weather when the price goes up? I run about half and half diesel-veggie in warm weather.

On one of my projects about half a tank of dino-diesel was in the tank for nearly 3 years and it was ok( finally added a good dose of Stanadyne juice to it, cleared up the smoking to a big extent ). Still running some of it, just got the car (85 Golf n/a) running.

Anyhow, old fuel, what's the limit with something like Stanadyne or Power Service added to it?

[82vdub]

Since I've owned my house (19 years now), it's been heated with heating oil. After the first year or two, I realized that the price of fuel oil really dropped in the summer months as compared to winter. Since I would go through about 2 275 gallon tanks of fuel a year, I got the idea to add an additional tank in the garage (next to the existing fuel tank). I filled up both tanks in the summer saving maybe $.50-$1.00/gallon for many years.

Starting about 5 years ago, the fuel and gas market got really wacked. I think in the last 5 years, I've purchased fuel in the summer months maybe once. I don't track it, so I could be wrong. But the point is that the fuel market is subject to such swings based on global demand, that guestimating when the fuel will rise or fall has been difficult. Last fall, I filled up both tanks for $3.29 gallon, as I didn't expect the price to drop much. After diesel peaked and then the economy started to drop, fuel dropped. Two weeks ago I got more delivered for $1.95 gallon. In essence, I had to burn up my expensive fuel before I could replace it with cheaper fuel.

I think the shelf life on diesel fuel is probably 6 months or so. Can you use it after that? Sure, but I don't know what changes chemically with it as it ages. A couple points for you though. You had better make sure you get on the road diesel so that it has the automotive fuel additives to it to keep your fuel system clean and so you are tax legal. It's illegal to use off road diesel, military diesel, or heating fuel oil on the road because you are bypassing paying road fuel taxes. They are all died different colors. You will also likely pay a delivery charge to get the fuel to you, and then the fuel delivery guy may not be able to pump it into non-approved fuel storage containers. You also need a licensed vehicle for transporting fuel, so you may or may not be able to go get your barrels filled up and bring it home. Just some thoughts to think about, but if you want to try it, nothing ventured nothing gained, IMO.

[Fatmobile]

I've been thinking about contracting some diesel while the price is low.
I think I can buy it at todays price and get it later,..
like many people do with propane.

That way I don't have to store it here,..
but if the company goes bankrupt, I'm screwed.