Chart shows what you're paying for when you buy a gallon of gas

The oil proviso shock from the Iran war is straight impacting what Americans wage to capable up their cars, with gasoline prices up an mean of astir 60 cents since hostilities erupted connected February 28. But conscionable however overmuch does the outgo of lipid origin into however overmuch drivers wage to substance up?

"The terms of oil, which is market-determined, is the biggest, movable determiner," of state prices, Patrick De Haan, a petroleum adept astatine GasBuddy, told CBS News. 

The U.S., the world's leading crude lipid producer, specializes successful pumping "light" crude, a high-quality lipid that with beardown planetary demand. However, the country's refineries are optimized to process a much viscous benignant of lipid known arsenic "heavy" crude, which is usually imported and past processed successful the U.S. That explains wherefore global lipid prices whitethorn impact what American drivers extremity up paying astatine the pump.

Gasoline is derived from crude oil, which is extracted from the world and brought to a refinery. The finished merchandise is past transported to section terminals done pipelines and stored until tanker trucks travel to transport it to section state stations. 

Gas stations bargain substance astatine the marketplace terms and determine however overmuch to merchantability it for, factoring successful overhead costs and people nett margins. De Haan estimates that stations gain an mean of 30 to 35 cents a gallon. 

"When lipid prices are actively surging, state stations mostly person a little margin," helium explained, noting the higher costs. "When and if determination is alleviation and lipid prices plummet, that's erstwhile stations spot a widening margin."

As of Friday, the mean outgo of gasoline successful the U.S. was $3.91 a gallon, AAA information shows. A tube of Brent crude hovered astir $100, up 38% from $73 per tube conscionable earlier the Iran warfare started, according to information from FactSet.

What drives the outgo of gas?

According to the EIA, crude lipid accounts for 51% of the outgo of a gallon of gas, making it the biggest origin successful determining prices astatine the pump.

Refining — the process of breaking down crude lipid into antithetic components — accounts for 20% substance prices. Through refining, crude lipid is converted into a scope of petroleum products, including gas, pitchy substance and heating oil.

Marketing and distribution, which see the outgo of transporting substance to state stations astir the U.S. and retailers' operating costs, marque up different 11% of the full outgo of gas.

The last constituent consists of the authorities and national taxes charged for each gallon of gas. The national taxation is 18.4 cents and goes toward road attraction and infrastructure, according to the EIA.

State taxes vary, explaining wherefore prices often disagree erstwhile you transverse authorities lines. The mean taxation crossed states is astir 34 cents per gallon, though they emergence arsenic precocious arsenic 70.9 cents successful California and arsenic debased arsenic 9 cents per successful Alaska, a caller EIA analysis  shows.

Seasonal shifts

Beyond these factors, the clip of twelvemonth besides influences state prices. From February to precocious March, for example, states commencement phasing successful summer-blend gasoline.

This blend, created to withstand lukewarm weather, is much costly to produce. As a result, consumers usually extremity up paying astir 15 cents much per gallon during the summer, according to CBS News Minnesota. Retailers are required to merchantability the summertime substance from June 1 done September 15.

Demand for state besides starts to ramp up successful the outpouring and summer, partially explaining wherefore prices typically emergence arsenic the upwind warms up.

Edited by Alain Sherter and Aimee Picchi

In:

• Oil Imports
• Gas Prices
• Oil and Gas