California may face $3 diesel after Chevron refinery problem

California may face $3 diesel after Chevron refinery problem

Thu Aug 4, 2005


HOUSTON (Dow Jones/AP) -- A major oil refinery shutdown has caused
retail diesel to spike toward $3 a gallon in California.

Diesel prices hit all-time high Wednesday in Los Angeles, Long Beach,
San Diego and San Bernardino, according to the Automobile Club of
Southern California. The state average is at $2.76, with San Francisco
ahead of the curve at $2.83.

Marketers near Bakersfield have said prices there are nearing $3 a
gallon.

"In some of these areas, the price is about 3 cents higher than it was
yesterday," said Paul Gonzales of the organization, which is the
largest affiliate of AAA. The prices mark a 25 percent increase over
year-ago levels, Gonzales explained.


Although diesel prices have been consistently strong throughout the
summer, the latest rise is attributed to the shutdown of a 200,000
barrel a day crude processing unit at Chevron Corp.'s El Segundo
refinery. A July 20 fire damaged the unit, which Chevron says won't be
back on line for another week.


The price of diesel in the Los Angeles basin spot market rose 2.5
cents to a record $2.1275 Wednesday afternoon, according to traders in
the physical market.


The company says it will meet contractual supply commitments to its
customers despite the outage. However, traders, marketers and brokers
doing business with the company have said Chevron cut diesel delivery
to large, national account customers outside the Los Angeles basin who
aren't on contracts.


The diesel shortage will affect truckers moving goods imported through
California and agricultural produce from the state. The high prices
cluster around the port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the United
States and a key entry point for Asian goods.


------

> California may face $3 diesel after Chevron refinery problem

that's CHEAP!

cheapest diesel I can get in Germany is at about ? 1.10 per liter, and at
3.7853 liters to the gallon that is (current exchange rate included) about
US$ 5.15 per Gallon

so don't complain please

Hardpan wrote:
> California may face $3 diesel after Chevron refinery problem
>
> Thu Aug 4, 2005
>
>
> HOUSTON (Dow Jones/AP) -- A major oil refinery shutdown has caused
> retail diesel to spike toward $3 a gallon in California.
>
> Diesel prices hit all-time high Wednesday in Los Angeles, Long Beach,
> San Diego and San Bernardino, according to the Automobile Club of
> Southern California. The state average is at $2.76, with San Francisco
> ahead of the curve at $2.83.
>
> Marketers near Bakersfield have said prices there are nearing $3 a
> gallon.
>
> "In some of these areas, the price is about 3 cents higher than it was
> yesterday," said Paul Gonzales of the organization, which is the
> largest affiliate of AAA. The prices mark a 25 percent increase over
> year-ago levels, Gonzales explained.
>
>
> Although diesel prices have been consistently strong throughout the
> summer, the latest rise is attributed to the shutdown of a 200,000
> barrel a day crude processing unit at Chevron Corp.'s El Segundo
> refinery. A July 20 fire damaged the unit, which Chevron says won't be
> back on line for another week.
>
>
> The price of diesel in the Los Angeles basin spot market rose 2.5
> cents to a record $2.1275 Wednesday afternoon, according to traders in
> the physical market.
>
>
> The company says it will meet contractual supply commitments to its
> customers despite the outage. However, traders, marketers and brokers
> doing business with the company have said Chevron cut diesel delivery
> to large, national account customers outside the Los Angeles basin who
> aren't on contracts.
>
>
> The diesel shortage will affect truckers moving goods imported through
> California and agricultural produce from the state. The high prices
> cluster around the port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the United
> States and a key entry point for Asian goods.
>

And yet another reason to not own a diesel powered car.

"Hardpan" > wrote in message
news:1123409218.9ba66a664540c94024f1a66070e77b49@t eranews...
> California may face $3 diesel after Chevron refinery problem
>
> Thu Aug 4, 2005
>
>
> HOUSTON (Dow Jones/AP) -- A major oil refinery shutdown has caused
> retail diesel to spike toward $3 a gallon in California.
>
> Diesel prices hit all-time high Wednesday in Los Angeles, Long Beach,
> San Diego and San Bernardino, according to the Automobile Club of
> Southern California. The state average is at $2.76, with San Francisco
> ahead of the curve at $2.83.
>
> Marketers near Bakersfield have said prices there are nearing $3 a
> gallon.
>
> "In some of these areas, the price is about 3 cents higher than it was
> yesterday," said Paul Gonzales of the organization, which is the
> largest affiliate of AAA. The prices mark a 25 percent increase over
> year-ago levels, Gonzales explained.
>
>
> Although diesel prices have been consistently strong throughout the
> summer, the latest rise is attributed to the shutdown of a 200,000
> barrel a day crude processing unit at Chevron Corp.'s El Segundo
> refinery. A July 20 fire damaged the unit, which Chevron says won't be
> back on line for another week.
>
>
> The price of diesel in the Los Angeles basin spot market rose 2.5
> cents to a record $2.1275 Wednesday afternoon, according to traders in
> the physical market.
>
>
> The company says it will meet contractual supply commitments to its
> customers despite the outage. However, traders, marketers and brokers
> doing business with the company have said Chevron cut diesel delivery
> to large, national account customers outside the Los Angeles basin who
> aren't on contracts.
>
>
> The diesel shortage will affect truckers moving goods imported through
> California and agricultural produce from the state. The high prices
> cluster around the port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the United
> States and a key entry point for Asian goods.
>
>
> ------
>
>

I saw diesel for $3.159 in West Sacramento this morning!!!!

> We also have a huge country with a poor railway system that makes
> driving vehicles the only reasonable way to get around {...}
> when fuel prices jump here it has a much bigger effect on
> the working person

....not to mention the fact that most consumer goods travel at least
part of the journey from factory to warehouse to retail store -- maybe
all of it -- by diesel truck. Chances are, so do at least some of
their parts and raw materials.

Freight trains in the US are of course diesel too, for the most part
(and so are a lot of ships) though I'd imagine that such vehicles have
a lot more opportunity to deal with local fuel-price blips by tanking
up where it's cheap than do trucks.

Higher fuel costs for transporting goods means higher prices, which
affects everybody but hits working people harder as a proportion of
income...

Cheers,
--Joe

"John S." > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Hardpan wrote:
>> California may face $3 diesel after Chevron refinery problem
>>
>> Thu Aug 4, 2005
>>
>>
>> HOUSTON (Dow Jones/AP) -- A major oil refinery shutdown has caused
>> retail diesel to spike toward $3 a gallon in California.
>>
>> Diesel prices hit all-time high Wednesday in Los Angeles, Long Beach,
>> San Diego and San Bernardino, according to the Automobile Club of
>> Southern California. The state average is at $2.76, with San Francisco
>> ahead of the curve at $2.83.
>>
>> Marketers near Bakersfield have said prices there are nearing $3 a
>> gallon.
>>
>> "In some of these areas, the price is about 3 cents higher than it was
>> yesterday," said Paul Gonzales of the organization, which is the
>> largest affiliate of AAA. The prices mark a 25 percent increase over
>> year-ago levels, Gonzales explained.
>>
>>
>> Although diesel prices have been consistently strong throughout the
>> summer, the latest rise is attributed to the shutdown of a 200,000
>> barrel a day crude processing unit at Chevron Corp.'s El Segundo
>> refinery. A July 20 fire damaged the unit, which Chevron says won't be
>> back on line for another week.
>>
>>
>> The price of diesel in the Los Angeles basin spot market rose 2.5
>> cents to a record $2.1275 Wednesday afternoon, according to traders in
>> the physical market.
>>
>>
>> The company says it will meet contractual supply commitments to its
>> customers despite the outage. However, traders, marketers and brokers
>> doing business with the company have said Chevron cut diesel delivery
>> to large, national account customers outside the Los Angeles basin who
>> aren't on contracts.
>>
>>
>> The diesel shortage will affect truckers moving goods imported through
>> California and agricultural produce from the state. The high prices
>> cluster around the port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the United
>> States and a key entry point for Asian goods.
>>
>
> And yet another reason to not own a diesel powered car.

One reason to own one: pay 10% more for fuel and get significantly improved
mileage(40-60%), hence total costs are less, at least right now in my
situation.

"Roy Shroyer" > wrote
> "John S." > wrote
>> And yet another reason to not own a diesel powered car.
>
> One reason to own one: pay 10% more for fuel and get significantly
> improved mileage(40-60%), hence total costs are less, at least right now
> in my situation.

It's more like 30% (I just looked at the Jetta GLS city figures). Let's
look
at numbers. The 2005 TDI costs $1000 more than the 2005 2.0L. Say that
regular gasoline costs $2.50 and diesel $2.75 (up here in WA, diesel usually
costs about what premium does; about $.15-$.20 more than regular). 15,000
miles a year (at city mileage: 24 mpg vs. 32 mpg).
$2.50 24 625 $1,562.50
$2.75 32 468.75 $1,289.06
$273.44

Gonna take you 4 years to make it pay off. If diesel cost $3 it would be
more than 6 years. A Mercedes E320CDI costs $1800 more than an
E320, and the mileage savings are less, so it would take longer (10 years?)
to make the savings pay back. Meanwhile, you're causing more cancer
and other illnesses. IMO, it's not a clear win by any means.

Floyd

Roy Shroyer wrote:

>
>
> > And yet another reason to not own a diesel powered car.
>
> One reason to own one: pay 10% more for fuel and get significantly improved
> mileage(40-60%), hence total costs are less, at least right now in my
> situation.

I use to enjoy the much improved mileage with my diesel powered pickup truck
when I had it. I got it back in 1985, Ford Ranger with a Mitsubishi diesel.
Diesel fuel was about 25% cheaper than gasoline and I averaged close to 50 mpg
with it. Between the better mileage and cheaper fuel, it was much more
economical than gas.

There were some other routine operating costs that were higher. Oil filters were
$33 and it took 8 litres of oil instead of the usual 5. The real kicker was the
fuel filter. I almost fainted when I had to change that. They were $110. I took
it to another dealer and spent $160 to have a Racor filter system installed, and
I was able to pick up the filters at a local truck shop for $4 each if I bought
a dozen at a time. When I switched back to a gas powered vehicle 5 years later
my weekly cost of fuel almost doubled.

Being a diesel, it worked great as long as it was well maintained. One problem
I had was the oil cooling line. I don't know why a small engine with an 8 litre
oil capacity needed an external cooler, but the least they could have done was
to make it out of something more durable. I had to have that line replaced
several times because it developed leaks.


Back then it was $1200 extra for the diesel. I have been hearing lately that
diesel is about a $3000 option, so you need to have a close look at the miles
you are going to be driving to figure out the fuel savings, and you can no
longer count on the fuel being cheaper than gasoline. On a few occasion
recently, diesel has been more expensive than gasoline, but it has been fairly
steady lately at abut 2 cents per litre cheaper.

What a coincidence!