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Registered
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Oxford, Ct.
Posts: 2,297
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Gas price rant and a question for SammyG
Am I mistaken or has the differential in price between grades of gas changed?
I believe that in the recent past there was a .10 to 15 cent difference between the grades Now in Ct at least there is a 25 to 40 cent difference As a cheap old bastage that knows my cars have knock sensors there's no chance I'd buy high test But I'm curious if anyone else has noticed this Question for Sammy: How much more does it cost to produce 93 vs 87 octane?
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07 GT3 Cup S 4.0, 00 986, 78 911 old school gt car 77 BMW R100S 99 Ducati 996S 04 BMW R1150R DanielJacobsLLC.com |
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Hell Belcho
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Oz
Posts: 9,250
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Good question. Im interested as well.
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Saved by the buoyancy of citrus. |
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Eva
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Dan, there's a Shell in West Hartford with a $.70 spread between grades...unreal
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'78 SC Targa ~Brynhild~ Insta: @911saucy "The car has been the cave wall on which Industrial Man has painted his longings and desires." -Eddie Alterman- |
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i'm just a cook
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: downtown vernon,central new york
Posts: 4,868
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i'll guess...... less than a nickel?
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Registered
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You've got it bass ackwards. The title is supposed to be "Question about gas prices and a rant from SammyG"
![]() J/K, I wonder as well.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------- "There is nothing to be learned from the second kick of a mule" - Mark Twain |
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Student of the obvious
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Phoenix
Posts: 7,714
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Gas sold at Fry's grocery store near me is:
Reg $2.63 Mid $2.76 Prem $2.89 At Chevron: Reg $2.65 Mid $2.84 Prem $3.01
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Lee |
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Hell Belcho
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Oz
Posts: 9,250
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Now now, lets give the man a chance to speak
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Saved by the buoyancy of citrus. |
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winter-hater club member
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: salt lake city, utah
Posts: 24,705
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Quote:
edit: i spoke too soon. i looked at prices online and they have really dropped, locally. it's only been a few days since i purchased fuel, but it seems that prices have really dropped. $2.98/gallon is the average being reported.
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2000 Corvette - ????, 2007 Buell XB9R - Astrid, 1996 Discovery - Piglet, 2000 Forester "COOL PRIUS!" - Nobody Ever Last edited by nynor; 11-19-2014 at 06:50 PM.. |
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Registered
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Oxford, Ct.
Posts: 2,297
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Quote:
In Ct yesterday it was Reg $3.25 Mid $3.55 Prem $3.85
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07 GT3 Cup S 4.0, 00 986, 78 911 old school gt car 77 BMW R100S 99 Ducati 996S 04 BMW R1150R DanielJacobsLLC.com |
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Registered
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Seattle
Posts: 1,247
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I've always had a suspicion that midgrade doesn't really exist, it's actually premium. Do they really run three different grades of fuel in trucks to every station?
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"Rust never sleeps" |
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Unregistered
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: a wretched hive of scum and villainy
Posts: 55,652
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Quote:
There's only so much you can get out of a barrel of crude. Part of what we get is called straight-run gasoline, it's a dirty low-octane product that we get from pure distillation. The straight run gasoline is cleaned of sulfur and other impurities but the octane is still way too low to sell, so it's blended with higher octane components. Those components are usually reformate (102-ish octane from a platinum reformimg unit) or alkylate (98 octane from an acid alkylation plant). And they are expensive to make. So to determine how much premium gas costs to make over regular, we'd have to determine the cost of making naptha and then the cost of running it through a unit to convert it to a high octane distillate for blending. Those prices vary depending on demand and the cost of the crude. I can tell you that an alkylation plant and platinum catalyst reforming plant are the most expensive to run per bbl. The catalyst in a reforming unit can easily cost $20 million and hs to be regenerated every year or so. An alkylate unit used acid as a catalyst, some still use hydrofluoric acid (alien acid, eats thruogh glass and 316 stainless steel) but most use sulfuric. Lots of it. I remember last summer there was a shortage of alkylate and high octane blend stocks and that drove up the price big time. So how much more does premium cost to make ...... it's less than the difference you see at the pumps. We sell wholesale premium for about 15 cents/gallon more than regular. That's probably pretty close to what it costs to make it on average. Then the retailer marks it up to whatever he needs to justify selling it. Premium kinda sux in that it moves slower, it takes up valuable tankage and pump space, which could be used to move regular. So he marks up the price of premium to offset the cost of selling it, and then he gets greedy and marks it up some more. He charges all that the market will bear. If he goes too high his sales drop off, but he is always testing that limit. |
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Get off my lawn!
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Quote:
It is $2.22 per gallon here for the gas with corn in it. I don't buy that and go for 100% gas and it is 20 or 30 cents more. I don't care my cars get real gas.
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Glen 49 Year member of the Porsche Club of America 1985 911 Carrera; 2017 Macan 1986 El Camino with Fuel Injected 350 Crate Engine My Motto: I will never be too old to have a happy childhood! |
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Unregistered
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: a wretched hive of scum and villainy
Posts: 55,652
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Quote:
And no refiner would dare sell lower octane as higher mid-grade either. Playing games with octane gets you a ticket to prison. It is blended but it is the octane it says it is. They test the octane we sell and they test the equipment we use to test the octane we sell and it has to be accurate. Did ya know that every refinery has it's own sophisticated laboratory that is constantly running hundreds of different tests on hydrocarbon samples? I bet we have at least 20 full time chemists on staff. |
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Unregistered
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: a wretched hive of scum and villainy
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Registered
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Vancouver,Wa.
Posts: 4,457
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Quote:
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JPIII Early Boxster |
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Registered
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Seattle
Posts: 1,247
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So is midgrade blended at the refinery or at the pump?
Given the strict standards and measures requirements for octane levels, I can't imagine the pump being in control of the octane in the blended product. Is it really as simple as equal parts premium and regular get you midgrade??
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Registered
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Erehwon
Posts: 3,369
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Quote:
To be fair, I am not sure if the ratio is linear, but it is predictable. And BTW, the default if they run out of mid-grade and for whatever reason they cannot mix (some outlets do not have the equipment but have extra tankage), they default to premium. I have, on occasion, found out when the local station was forced to use premium as a substitute for mid-range and was quite happy to save the bucks... Dennis |
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Registered
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Seattle
Posts: 1,247
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This is exactly the reason for my thought and I think I must have heard this at some point from a station operator. I would guess that the midgrade pump occasionally pumps premium out the nozzle. Probably not as often as one would hope and certainly not something you could rely upon if running higher compression and no knock sensor, etc.
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Registered
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 10,345
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On a similar note, a new station opened near me a few weeks ago. Along wiht the usual 10% ethanol blends (reg is 2.919/gal this morning) they also have ethanol-free. Which is 3.619/gal
All else equal, shouldn't the ethanol free be only 30 cents/gal more than the regular w/ ethanol? Or is the price jacked up just because?
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“IN MY EXPERIENCE, SUSAN, WITHIN THEIR HEADS TOO MANY HUMANS SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN THE MIDDLE OF WARS THAT HAPPENED CENTURIES AGO.” |
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Registered
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 168
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Dan, I've seen wide gaps as well at some places. This week I pulled into a Shell station where the regular to premium gap was between $2.80 - $3.44 which wasn't even the worst example. I decided to try right across the street at an Exxon where the gap was $2.75 to $3.15, still a bit wide but not as bad so that's where I filled up the 911.
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