Diesel Falls Below $3 a Gallon for First Time Since 2010
The average price of U.S. diesel fell for the 10th week in a row, with the 12-cent decline Jan. 19 taking trucking’s main fuel below the $3-per-gallon level for the first time September 2010.
The retail average was $2.933, the Department of Energy said Jan. 20 after its weekly survey of fueling stations. The average is 94 cents a gallon lower than a year ago.
The diesel average was precisely $3 a gallon Oct. 4, 2010, at which point fuel was on the rise after the depth of the recession. The low point for diesel during the Great Recession was $2.017 on March 16, 2009.
Gasoline’s fall has been more pronounced than diesel’s. EIA said the national gas average has declined for 16 straight weeks down to $2.066 a gallon. The drop for the week ended Jan. 19 was 7.3 cents a gallon.
The recent high for gasoline was $3.713 on April 28. The current price average is $1.23 less than a year ago.
The last time gas was cheaper was April 27, 2009, when the average was $2.049 a gallon. The recession-era low was $1.613 on Dec. 29, 2008.
DOE’s Energy Information Administration released the price a day later than usual due to the national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.
As recently as March 10, the average stood at $4.021 a gallon, but since then it has plunged along with the price of crude oil as the United States has produced large amounts of domestic oil because of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Crude oil futures have closed below $50 a barrel for the 10 trading days from Jan. 6 to Jan. 20, including $46.39 on Jan. 20. Bloomberg News reported that Iraqi oil production has been on the rise, leading to even more international supply.
