What About Those Diesel Topping Refineries In North Dakota? -- January 14, 2015

Initial production data for wells coming off confidential list today have been posted. 

RBN Energy: Diesel lagging.

One positive element to the oil price crash is that consumers are paying less at the pump for their gasoline. Of course it is natural that prices at the pump don’t fall as fast as they do in spot or futures markets – there is a lag – usually measured in days. However, while average retail gas prices have fallen over $1/Gal in the past year – more or less in line with spot and futures markets, it seems that changes to diesel prices at the pump have lagged further behind refinery prices. The result is that retail buyers filling their diesel truck at the pump have benefited far less from the oil price windfall than gasoline powered vehicle owners – at least so far. Today we review the data.

This blog began with a visit to the gas station last week. We noticed that although regular gasoline prices have been falling consistently in the past six months – making everyone feel happier about filling up their tank - the retail posted price for diesel doesn’t seem to have fallen nearly as far or as fast – to the tune of a differential at the pump of $0.50/Gal - $1.00/Gal between unleaded regular and diesel. That was a pretty unscientific survey based on prices in Houston and Austin, TX. We decided to dig into the data to see if we were just imagining things or if retail diesel prices were not responding as fast at the pump as gasoline.

One can find state-by-state diesel prices at this AAA site.  I saw the same thing driving cross-country a few weeks ago; diesel was still very expensive, especially compared to gasoline.

Active rigs:

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