Gasoline from Crude Petroleum.

I have seen estimates that range from very little (THugo's oil is considered to be a poor gas producer with a yield of about 5 gallons to a barrel) to a fair amount. An oil barrel is 42 gallons and one rough percentage of gasoline I have seen is 30% this is 12.6 gallons/barrel and another says about 19.5 gallons/barrel (46%). Of course, it is hard to come up with an exact number since the amount of gasoline coming from the crude depends on the crude itself as well as the exact refining processes used.

So, the price per barrel is at about $70/barrel. This means the cost of the gasoline is around $1.67 gallon. Of course, this assumes the entire $70 goes to obtain the gasoline and nothing else. This does not account for the actual costs of refining, transportation, and distribution to market. Of course, this doesn't include the taxes!

Here in Wisconsin we pay 49.5 cents/gallon (fourth highest in the nation) so for those of us in WI we are looking at 2.165. This leaves about 68 cents/gallon (current gas goes for $2.85/gallon up here) for profit (yes, businesses are in business to make a profit), transportation, refining, and distribution. I can not see or believe any of those are very cheap (except for the profit part) as the transportation, refining, and distribution all require–energy to carry out. Of course, you have at least two layers of middlemen in the process taking their cut.