There is so much crap being thrown around lately as to who’s to blame for the current high price of gasoline. Can someone provide factual answers as to what are all the components that go into the price we pay at the pump? The light of the Straight Dope desperately needs to be shed on this issue.
How many gallons of gas result from 1 barrel of oil? At $70 per barrel, the starting base price of a gallon of gas would be $70 divided by that number (minus the sales of any other components of the oil such as heating oil, propane, etc).
What is the refining cost per gallon?
What are the transportation costs per gallon?
What is the average profit taken by the oil company per gallon?
What is the average profit taken by the gas station (assuming not owned by the oil company)?
What are the average retail taxes per gallon (I know this varies dramatically by state)?
What are the average taxes, per gallon, paid by each member of the chain from oil company to retail sale?
I think the answers to these questions will provide a tremendous amount of perspective on the current situation.
According to John Mace’s cited site, a barrel of oil produced 41.52 gallons of gas in 2003, and 42.52 gallons of gas in 2004. If I’ve done the math right, which I probably haven’t. A few places on line confirm this figure (giving 42), but most say 19.4 or 19.5 gallons per barrel.
I gather this is because we could get 42 gallons of gas per barrel of oil if that’s all we used oil for, but in practice we get 19½ because we also make other stuff. But that’s all from google; anyone with actual knowledge, please chime in and correct.
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