Why does the price of Synthetic oil go up when crude oil goes up?
Ridiculously Active Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,430
From: Phoenix, AZ
Re: Why does the price of Synthetic oil go up when crude oil goes up?
Personally, I have not seen synthetic oil prices fluctuate based on the cost of oil, but maybe it does. What have you seen?
Re: Why does the price of Synthetic oil go up when crude oil goes up?
A good synthetic oil is made from a base, usually polyalphaolefin. The base is produced chemically from ethylene which is the olefiant or oil-producing gas. It is in turn produced by cracking crude oil. So crude goes up ... synthetic oil goes up. No mystery.
JeffD
JeffD
MPG FANATIC WITH GUZZLERS
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 521
From: New Orleans
Mobil 1 5 qts $17.99 to $22.99
Sure it has gone up.You could buy the 5 qt jugs of Mobil 1 for about $17.99 at Walmart before Katrina(gasoline was about $2/gal).Now 5 qts is about $23.
Single qts were $3.99 before, now they are about $5.
Jdenenberg is right of course-the base stock is a petro based product.Of course, there isn't any reason you couldn't start with plant based carbon chains(oils,sugars, ethanol whatever), but then it would be even more expensive.This probably will happen in the future as we distance ourselves from M E energy sources(and non renewable sources).Thanks.Charlie
Single qts were $3.99 before, now they are about $5.
Jdenenberg is right of course-the base stock is a petro based product.Of course, there isn't any reason you couldn't start with plant based carbon chains(oils,sugars, ethanol whatever), but then it would be even more expensive.This probably will happen in the future as we distance ourselves from M E energy sources(and non renewable sources).Thanks.Charlie
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lkewin
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Oct 26, 2005 01:18 PM
