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Posted by Ken Dunnington [71.211.217.218] on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 18:33:01 :
In Reply to: gas vs diesel posted by clueless [201.197.231.58] on Monday, April 26, 2010 at 13:22:43 :
As you stated, supply/demand plays a role as does process cost.
But so do things like the BTU content of the end product, particularly for fuels. A barrel of oil has a certain amount of energy contained within it and no more. If one can break up that energy content into more gallons of gasoline than diesel then gasoline would be cheaper on the basis of spreading out that energy of the raw material over more units. Diesel's BTU content is higher than gasoline's by ~10%, IIRC. This provides an argument for diesel being more expensive than gasoline as it contains more energy.
Then consider a gallon of diesel vs gasoline with regard to how much of that gallon came from oil vs other sources. Diesel's content has a higher percentage derived from oil vs gasoline's, again if I recall correctly. Thus this is another source of price disparity between the two fuels that is not based on the cost of oil or the refining process of such.
I am sure there are more factors, these are just a few.
Ken