Question regarding gas/petroleum

[Spongo]

Anyone?

 

[klah]

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question417.htm

If you look at the statistics on a page like this one, you find that a barrel of oil (which contains 42 gallons or 159 liters) will yield something like 19 or 20 gallons (75 liters) of gasoline, depending on the refinery.

 

[Red]

5

 

[Spongo]

from the link from klah...

"a barrel of oil (which contains 42 gallons or 159 liters) will yield something like 19 or 20 gallons (75 liters) of gasoline..."

Interesting.

 

[Trevelyan]

Wait... so if crude oil is near $70/barrel, and that gives 20 gallons of gas, shouldn't gas prices be at $3.50/gallon?

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Wait... so if crude oil is near $70/barrel, and that gives 20 gallons of gas, shouldn't gas prices be at $3.50/gallon?

Before tax.... actually they are about to go above $5/gallon nationwide I think.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Wait... so if crude oil is near $70/barrel, and that gives 20 gallons of gas, shouldn't gas prices be at $3.50/gallon?

Yeah, because the other 22 gallons of crude gets dumped into a river...

 

[Mokmo418]

the other 22 gallons are turned into diesel, heating oil, plane fuel, natural gas, etc ... plus the fees for refining, transport, taxes

 

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: Trevelyan
Wait... so if crude oil is near $70/barrel, and that gives 20 gallons of gas, shouldn't gas prices be at $3.50/gallon?

As others noted, it isn't just Gasoline you get from oil. Depending on the type of crude, you also get a lot of other petroleum distilates from it; ranging from Diesel fuel to heating oil to plastics and kerosone among others.

That being said, there are still a lot of steps between taking oil from the ground to putting gas in your car. There are a lot of intermediary steps that are performed by various firms who also want to make a profit. Transport of crude, refining, transport of gas, gas distributors, and gas station owners all have to make a profit. Thus, it's somewhat more difficult to peg your per gallon gasoline prices to the per-barrel prices paid for crude. This is why sometimes even though oil prices drop, gas prices rise, and vice versa.

 

[Trevelyan]

Ah, I see now. That makes more sense. Thanks.