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he average retail price of diesel fuel jumped 6.6 cents to $2.798 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.

The increase follows drops in the previous weekly surveys of 16.6 cents, after record high prices of $2.898 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Meanwhile, the average price of regular gasoline rose 1.7 cents to $2.803, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.

Diesel’s price is 78.6 over the same time last year, which translates to about $523 million in extra costs for the week at a burn rate of 665 million gallons.

Crude oil prices rose $1.63 to $65.82 a barrel Monday on reports that refineries on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast sustained damage from Hurricane Rita, although that damaged was not as great as initially feared. (Click here for previous coverage.)

Diesel rose in four of the five national regions, and fell only in the West Coast region, where it dropped 0.7 cents to $2.978, still the highest regional price.

In California, which DOE breaks out separately from the regional prices, the retail level dropped 2.9 cents to $3.031 a gallon.

The Midwest saw the highest jump, of 9.1 cents to $2.739 a gallon, while the Rocky Mountain region had the smallest increase, rising 3.6 cents to $2.938.

Each week DOE surveys 350 filling stations to compile a national snapshot retail price.