[sammyg2]

The pricing of gas isn't logical, it is driven by the supply and what the market will bear. In this case high octane distillates and blend stocks which are used to make premium.

Now, what will the market bear? People are already pissed at the high prices and having premium significanty higher than that will just be too much, so the station owners don't want to push their luck.
A few years ago premium was only about 5 cents more expensive than regular on the wholesale market but the station owners jacked up the price and made a much higher margin on premium. Today, premium costs about 21 cents more than regular on the wholesale market ($2.85 vs. $2.64 US average). The station owners are actually making a smaller margin on the good stuff than they used to, because most of them just don't have the guts to stick it to the consumer any more than thay already are.

Yep, the average wholesale price of premium is around $2.85 a gallon (data is a few weeks old, it might be slightly higher by now). The price for a gallon of light sweet crude is about $2.70 a gallon. add to that the cost of refining that crude and there isn't very much left over as profit.

Take the wholesale price and add to that anywhere from 40 to 70 cents a gallon for taxes depending on where you live, and the rest goes to distributors and station owners. Up to 60 cents a gallon goes to the station owners, which is at least 10 times as much as the refining companies are getting per gallon, prolly more.

One thing to keep in mind, the station owners are making a slightly higher percentage of profit that in recent past but the price of a gallon has basically doubled so they are making more than twice as much as they were 5 years ago. Most of them are literally making a killing right now.

Kind of like the real estate vultures during the housing bubble. They were still getting 6% commission but the price of houses basically tripled, and so did their commission. All the way to the bank ...