Diesel Falls 3.8¢ to $3.85, for Eighth Decline in Nine Weeks
Diesel fuel’s national average price fell 3.8 cents to $3.85 a gallon, its eighth drop in the past nine weeks, while gasoline rose for the first time in two months, the Department of Energy said Tuesday.
Gas gained a half-cent to $3.579 a gallon, its first increase in eight weeks, leaving it 85.3 cents over the same week last year, DOE said.
Prior to Tuesday’s increase, gasoline had dropped 39.1 cents since hitting a more than two-and-a-half year high of $3.965 per-gallon on May 9, according to DOE records.
The diesel decline left trucking’s main fuel 96.2 cents higher than the same week a year ago, though it has fallen 27.4 cents since hitting a more than two-and-a-half-year high $4.124 per-gallon on May 2.
Oil prices have tumbled about $20 in the past two months to the mid-$90s per-barrel, after topping out at $113.93 in late April, also the highest in more than two-and-a-half years, Bloomberg figures showed.
But crude futures gained almost $2 Monday, rising $1.95 to finish the trading day at $96.89 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price. This week’s prices were released Tuesday because of the July 4th holiday Monday.
