Accurate figures are hard to come by, but my best estimate is that diesel cars account for around 50% of the car market at present and that share is increasing. Some time ago I read an article about the contents of a barrel of oil and the figures are as follows:
| Product | Gallons | Percentage |
| gasoline | 19.5 | 44.12% |
| distillate fuel oil (Includes home heating oil and diesel fuel) | 9.2 | 20.81% |
| kerosene-type jet fuel | 4.1 | 9.28% |
| residual fuel oil (Heavy oils used as fuels in industry, marine transportation and for electric power generation) |
2.3 | 5.20% |
| liquefied refinery gasses | 1.9 | 4.30% |
| still gas | 1.9 | 4.30% |
| coke | 1.8 | 4.07% |
| asphalt and road oil | 1.3 | 2.94% |
| petrochemical feedstocks | 1.2 | 2.71% |
| lubricants | 0.5 | 1.13% |
| kerosene | 0.2 | 0.45% |
| other | 0.3 | 0.68% |
| TOTALS | 44.2 |
Discounting the differences in fuel consumption between the two engine types I think that there is a glaring anomaly here. We are producing twice as much petrol as diesel for the same number of vehicles of each type, so the question is: How is it accounted for, where is all the surplus petrol going?
I understand that there are far too many variables to grapple with, and that a barrel of oil varies in consistency and content depending on its geographical area of production but I don’t understand why there is no information available for the discrepancies. Note also that the “Distillate Fuel Oil” covers heating oils too, so there is a bigger difference.
Over time I have remarked upon this to various people but no credible answer has been given…. Can you help?