Diesel to Average Below $3 This Year, DOE Says
U.S. retail diesel will average $2.85 per gallon this year, the Department of Energy said, lowering its most recent forecast by 22 cents.
But DOE said in its monthly short-term energy outlook released Jan 13 that trucking’s main fuel’s pump price will average $3.25 per gallon in 2016.
The department also lowered its gasoline-price projection, to $2.33 this year, compared with its most recent projection of $2.60. Gas averaged $3.36 last year.
“The main story continues to be low oil prices,” Sean Hill, an analyst with DOE’s Energy Information Administration, told Transport Topics. “Near-term the prices look really good for truckers, and anyone else driving anything.”
First-quarter gasoline prices will average $2.16, and the lower prices will save the average U.S. household $750 this year in fuel costs, DOE said.
Plunging pump prices are being driven by plummeting oil costs, as DOE cut its 2015 outlook for crude to $54.58 per barrel from last month’s $62.75, a 13% reduction.
Benchmark U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures have been below $50 a barrel for the past week. Futures finished New York Mercantile Exchange trading Jan. 12 at a 5½-year-low $46.07.
DOE’s most recent weekly retail price survey has diesel’s national retail average at $3.053 and gas at $2.139, the lowest levels in more than four and five years, respectively.
