Diesel Declines 8.4¢ to $3.053 a Gallon
Diesel’s national average pump price declined 8.4 cents to $3.053 a gallon, a four-year low, the Department of Energy reported Jan. 12.
Trucking’s main fuel declined to the lowest level since October 2010, when it was $3 a gallon. This decline is the largest in three weeks, when it dropped 13.8 cents.
Diesel has risen just once since June, and the national average is 83.3 cents less than a year ago.
Trucking’s main fuel fell in all five national regions, led by an 11.2-cent drop in the Rocky Mountains to $3.027 a gallon.
Gasoline also fell, dropping 7.5 cents to $2.139 a gallon, the lowest price since May 2009, DOE said after its weekly survey of filling stations.
Oil dropped to the lowest level in more than 5½ years after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA reduced their price forecasts, Bloomberg News reported.
West Texas Intermediate decreased 4.7 % to $46.07 a barrel, and Brent 5.3 % to $47.43.
Crude has to “stay lower for longer” if investment in shale is to be curtailed to rebalance the global market, according to Goldman analysts. Societe Generale said falling prices may force the shutdown of expensive crude operations in Canada and the United States.
“In a violent move like this, it’s impossible to pick the magic number that’s the bottom,” Katherine Spector, a commodities strategist at CIBC World Market, told Bloomberg.
“I’m not going to pick a bottom. Prices will have to go to a level that inflicts maximum pain before the bottom is found,” she said.
