Diesel Edges Up 0.8¢ to $3.902 a Gallon
Diesel edged up 0.8 cent to $3.902 a gallon, its first increase in eight weeks, the Department of Energy reported.
The gain leaves trucking’s main fuel 5.4 cents higher than the same week last year, DOE said late Tuesday following its weekly survey of filling stations.
Gasoline, meanwhile, rose for the fifth straight week, gaining 1.2 cents to $3.315 a gallon.
Despite the increase, gas, which has risen 6.1 cents in the past five weeks, is now 7.4 cents under the same week a year ago.
This week’s diesel upturn is just the second in the past 14 weeks; its only other increase was a 5.8-cent gain on Nov. 26.
Diesel is about 25 cents below the $4.15 per-gallon average from mid-October, which was the highest in more than four years.
While diesel slipped a penny in the New England sub-region, that area had the highest overall price, at $4.158.
The price rose 1.9 cents in California — which DOE breaks out separately from the West Coast region — to $4.082, the second-highest price.
The lowest overall price was $3.678, in the Rocky Mountain region.
Crude oil, meanwhile, rose 68 cents on Tuesday to finish the New York Mercantile Exchange trading day at a four-month high of $96.24 a barrel, Bloomberg News reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price. This week’s price was released on Tuesday because of the federal holiday on Monday.
