I’ve looked into this. Here’s the poop:
Diesel is a minority output of cracking crude into finished products. The typical “crack spread” is “3-2-1” in oil industry lingo - “3 barrels of crude cracks into 2 barrels of gasoline and 1 barrel of diesel.” It isn’t exactly this; there are other products in the mix as well, but you get the idea. The majority of the output is gasoline.
So you see the first part of the problem there.
Second part of the problem is the shifting consumption patterns around the world. In the EU, they’re quickly converting their auto fleet to highly efficient diesel cars that get from 40 to 60 MPG. Their diesel cars now make up more than 40% of their auto fleet, and that proportion is going up rapidly as tax policy and fuel prices make it a no-brainer to own a diesel auto rather than gas auto.
Next is the Chinese consumption of diesel. Much of the PRC’s consumption of diesel is for power generation. Caterpillar has been shipping megawatt+ gensets at a very rapid clip to China for years and years. The ChiComs’ power infrastructure is sloppy and uneven to say the least, so when they have a factory that needs reliable power and they’re under the gun to make quota productions, they buy a diesel genset, hook ‘er up and start generating their own power. Those gensets are all over the place in China and they slurp some ferocious amounts of fuel.
Diesel is a pretty world-wide fungible product, unlike our silly gasoline formulations. Everyone wants #2 diesel.
Then there are other demands on the distillate output: heating oil, Jet-A, standard military fuel, etc.
Everyone with a checkbook and a bottom line runs diesel.
Only the US consumer hasn’t gotten the message that diesel is the fuel of choice.
Thanks for the info re: Diesel.
“Everyone with a checkbook and a bottom line runs diesel.
Only the US consumer hasn’t gotten the message that diesel is the fuel of choice.”
I hear ya. In FFLD county CT commercial electric costs have shot up 80% in under 20 months.... I know of a machine shop that just went off the grid. They just purchased a $12,000.00 Genset and power their whole shop with diesel.