U.S. Retail Diesel Average Price Rises 5 Cents to $2.168
he average price of retail price diesel fuel rose again, climbing five cents to $2.168 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.
The price was just 4.4 cents off the all-time record of $2.212 set Oct. 25.
The increase follows a 9.8-cent rise the previous week, boosting the price of trucking’s main fuel by almost 15 cents a gallon over the past two weeks.
The diesel price was the highest since Nov. 1 when it was $2.206, DOE said. It has risen 23.4 cents a gallon since DOE reported a price of $1.934 on Jan. 10, a four-month low.
The price was 54 cents higher than a year earlier, DOE figures showed. The trucking industry burns an estimated 650 million gallons of diesel each week, which would raise the cost to the trucking industry by about $350 million more than the same week last year.
Light sweet crude oil futures rose sharply last week, remaining at over $50 a barrel and pushing past $55 in intraday trading Thursday. The all-time record for crude was $55.67 a barrel, also set Oct. 25.
OE reported diesel prices rose in all of its surveyed regions.
The Gulf Coast region rose the most, by 6.5 cents, to $2.10, though that was the lowest per-gallon price.
While California saw the smallest increase, of 3.2 cents, its per-gallon price of $2.408 trailed only the West Coast's price of $2.45 as the nation’s highest.
Each week, DOE surveys 350 diesel-filling stations to compile a national snapshot price.