The U.S. average retail diesel price fell for the ninth consecutive week, down 3.4 cents a gallon to $2.177, the Department of Energy reported Jan. 11.
Trucking’s main fuel was 87.6 cents a gallon cheaper than a year ago, when it was $3.053, DOE’s Energy Information Administration said.
The latest decline also put diesel at the lowest price since March 23, 2009, EIA said.
Diesel fell in all regions, and its lowest price in the Rocky Mountain area, down 5.7 cents to $2.134.
Also, the national average price of gasoline last week fell 3.2 cents to $1.996 a gallon, EIA said.
It was the eighth time in the past nine weeks that gas prices have fallen, leaving the fuel 14.3 cents cheaper than a year ago when the price was $2.139.
In the meantime, EIA is projected to report Jan. 13 that inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillate fuel increased last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts.
“Another bearish storage report will send us to new lows, and this week’s has the potential to be a doozy,” Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA in New York, told Bloomberg.
The news service reported Jan. 10 that fuel futures followed crude to new lows. Gasoline for February delivery dropped 1.3% to $1.113 a gallon, the lowest close since February 2009. Diesel for February delivery decreased 3.5% to settle at $1.0149, the lowest since June 2004.
