We have a global diesel shortage and are about to feel the effects of it.

[Yorkie Mom]

Link to tweet

Also: https://marketrealist.com/p/is-there-a-diesel-shortage/

[Tickle]

1. I can't take this

Why won’t we drill?

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. We?

Why won't the oil companies drill the sites they already have?

[Tickle]

14. Right, that's my question nt

[Hortensis]

21. Refineries were closed during the pandemic when the economy

slowed way down and demand plummeted. Some of production of the petroleum it comes from was also shut down. It takes demand, time, money, other means to restore production, but first has to come sustained increased demand, and then it takes time. Most of our diesel is reportedly produced in U.S. refineries.

[Wednesdays]

4. Guess who has the power to do so or not?

I'll give a hint: it's not the freaking U.S. government, nor the President in particular.

On edit: Another clue: midterm Election Day is just a half a year away.

[Tickle]

5. I know it's the

oil guys (right?) can’t we force them to do it temporarily?

[BannonsLiver]

6. Can't take what?

The doom hype that probably won’t amount to anything or the prospect of it actually becoming a crisis?

Incidentally the Tweet posted in the OP is from a foaming at the mouth RW nut job/Trumper. The whole feed is hyping economic doom and bashing Dems.

[NickB79]

13. Diesel at $6/gal is already contributing to goods costing more

So it's already amounting to something. So if the graph is accurate, it's almost assured we'll see $7/gal diesel by mid-summer. And that will add even more to the cost of everyday goods and food.

So at this point it's a matter of bad, worse, or doom. There is no good scenario left for the next few months.

[jmowreader]

20. Not sure if you know this...

...but it takes somewhere between six months (if the new well is going to be in an existing field and they already know where to drill) to two years (if they have to figure out where to drill and build all the infrastructure like tanks and pipelines) to go from "virgin earth" to "producing well."

If the oil producers would have gone out and started the work to install new wells the second the Biden Administration permitted them, we'd be far into 2023 before the new production was able to increase the supply of petroleum available to the market.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

2. Can we blame that stupid trucker's convoy for this?

All that driving slowly around the beltway had to eat up fuel...

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. You're joking, right?

I mean, this is tongue in cheek, isn’t it?

[AZSkiffyGeek]

12. Mostly...

I'm sure the impact is negligible. But when supplies are scarce, you don't waste them doing stupid shit. That causes prices to go up.

[BannonsLiver]

7. The Twitter account is from a far right wing foaming at the mouth trumper.

Do better, folks.

[Yorkie Mom]

8. Does that change the facts?

Nope. Also, look at the news source I listed. Maybe try a general google search like I did as well. Geeze!

[inthewind21]

9. Welcome

To un-regulated run amok capitalism. Never saw THIS coming huh.

[BannonsLiver]

19. Indeed it does

Since the facts stated and framing are from a Trump supporter. But hey, DU loves doom so I’m not surprised it’s being hyped here.

[Yorkie Mom]

22. Oh, good grief!

[Ohio Joe]

11. Assuming this is true, it is another gouging effort by the oil companies...

Gasoline Fuel and Diesel Fuel

Since gasoline and diesel engines operate differently, they require different types of fuel. While both gasoline and diesel start as crude oil mined from the earth, the refining process then separates them into various types of fuels. Diesel fuel is thicker than gasoline, which means it evaporates slower. Diesel fuel also has more energy density.

These features are another reason why diesel engines tend to have better fuel economy than gas engines. While diesel fuel typically costs more than gasoline, most diesel engines require less of it to accomplish the same amount of work as a gasoline engine.

Plus, diesel engine owners have a new fueling option that’s becoming available to them: biodiesel. Biodiesel fuel is made from non-petroleum sources, such as vegetable oil. Converting a diesel engine to run on biodiesel requires some modifications, especially if you have an older engine. However, since efficiency and sustainability are becoming more popular, biodiesel might become the next common alternative fuel.

https://www.sweeneychevrolet.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-diesel-and-gas/#:~:text=Gasoline%20Fuel%20and%20Diesel%20Fuel&text=While%20both%20gasoline%20and%20diesel,also%20has%20more%20energy%20density.

They are simply making less diesel to gouge some more.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

15. This is going to hurt

Pretty much everything is affected by diesel prices. Transportation costs will go up and that increase will get passed onto consumers. Everyone is going to feel the pain.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Sets Off My BS Detector

First, with a fraction of Russia's 11 million bbl/day off the market, and the countries makibg the other 80 million barrels operating at 80% of capacity or lower, crude is not in short supply. Overpriced, yes. But, not justified by supply & demand.
Second, refineries optimized both cracking & distillation to get constant fractional yields decades ago.
If there is crude, there will be diesel.
Given this source, i suspect this is fabricated fear mongering.

[NickB79]

17. Do you think the graph provided is fabricated or inaccurate?

It should be relatively easy to check out, as it's source is cited.

If the graph is accurate, though, we are definitely far below where we typically should be.

I'd also say that, if the graph is accurate, it's a clear sign that oil companies are manipulating the markets for profit.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. I Do Not Trust Market Realist

It's a conservative/libertarian economic opinion site. The libertarianism is quite extreme at times. They directly promote themselves as being for conservatives.
I don't trust their data or their analysis. The right & Randians have been lying with economic data for closing in on 50 years.
I live very near a refinery. I know the plant manager, the head of QA, three technical staff & an accountant. I see 3 of them around town at least once a week.
Not one of them mentioned a word about concerns over the diesel fraction. They all know my background, so they talk operations& business all tbe time.
Perhaps that gives you an idea why my BS detector went off.

[Yorkie Mom]

23. Good to know.

Thank you!

[NickB79]

25. I'm not really concerned with Market Realist. I'm interested in the graph used

It cites the Weekly Petroleum Status Report, which is put out by the US Energy Information Administration and would thus be a reputable primary source.

I'll be the first to admit I cannot make heads or tails of the information presented at their website when I go digging. That's why I was asking if you feel the graph produced was altered or inaccurate in some way.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. I Do Not Trust That Graph

It simply makes no sense. The source is irrelevant to me. It seems manipulated.

[Volaris]

24. Good. Electric cargo trucks. Unleaded gas should be 10 dollars a gallon.

And the fossil fuel problem will be market-corrected in very short order.

[roamer65]

27. I prefer gasoline and diesel rationing.

Worked well during WW2.

It’s fairer and will really kick start the fuel efficient vehicle market.

[Volaris]

30. Also a good idea

[Samrob]

26. If only we had started to really go "green" back when Jimmy Carter asked us to ... nt

[imanamerican63]

28. Bottom line is....

No matter what they do? Prices are go ice rise because they, oil tycoons will hold back to force the prices to get higher!

[Ron Green]

29. What's it gonna take to slow down and eventually reverse economic growth?

That’s what’s taking away the capacity of our only home, the earth, to support us safely and comfortably.

We’ve known for many years that a finite planet cannot bear infinite human growth; and yet here we are pointing fingers and talking about drilling.

[hunter]

31. I think we should be paying people to experiment with lifestyles...

... that have a very small environmental footprint.

We could judge the success of these experiments in terms of happiness, not any false measures of productivity.

With any luck lifestyles developed in these experiments would spread throughout the population. People do want to be happy, don't they?

Our current measure of economic "productivity" isn't productivity at all. It is in fact a direct measure of the damage we are doing to the earth's natural environment and our own human spirit.

Most of us suffer work that is not making the world a better place.

I'd start by housing the homeless using a wide variety of approaches to see which work best, and by restructuring the infrastructure of our cities in such a way that car ownership becomes unnecessary.

Demand for diesel would go down if demand for things that do not actually make us happy and/or contribute to the misery of others went down.

North America is a good place to start since Canada and the U.S.A. have the highest per capita carbon intensity of all nations. We typically emit three times the carbon dioxide and other green house gasses per capita than the rest of the world's population combined.

[Ron Green]

32. I like these ideas. The GDP measure is so harmful as to be almost backwards

from the “happiness index” we ought to seek.

You know, it’s anathema on DU to support religion, and so much harm has been done throughout the ages in the name of God, but secular scientific modernism, along with the desperate need for Diesel, is kind of kicking our asses these days.