Diesel Drops 5.1¢ to 16-Month Low $3.678; Gasoline Tumbles 9.6¢ to $3.437 a Gallon
Diesel fell for the 11th straight week, dropping 5.1 cents to $3.678 a gallon, a 16-month low, while gasoline dropped almost a dime, the Department of Energy said Monday.
Gas fell 9.6 cents — its biggest decline in more than a year — to $3.437, its lowest price in five months, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
The diesel downturn left trucking’s main fuel 21 cents below the same week last year, while gasoline is 13.7 cents under a year ago.
Diesel’s national average pump price has plunged 47 cents in the past 11 weeks, while gasoline has plummeted 50.4 cents in 12 straight declines.
Diesel’s price is the lowest since it was $3.573 on Feb. 21, 2011, and gas is at its lowest since it was $3.389 on Jan. 23 of this year.
The downturns followed lower oil prices, with crude tumbling to below $80 a barrel late last week for the first time since early October.
Oil fell 55 cents Monday to close at $79.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
