Diesel Falls for Fourth Straight Week, Dropping 4.9¢ to $3.948 a Gallon
Diesel continued its recent downward trend, falling for the fourth straight week with a 4.9-cent decline to $3.948 a gallon, while gasoline fell for a third week, the Department of Energy said Tuesday.
Gasoline fell 5.5 cents to $3.794 a gallon, DOE said following its weekly surveys of filling stations, leaving the motor fuel at its lowest level in seven weeks.
Diesel’s downturn was the fifth in six weeks and leaves trucking’s main fuel 17.6 cents below the $4.124 price of four weeks ago, which had been the highest since August 2008.
Last week’s 6.4-cent diesel drop was the biggest in a year, and it is now 96.8 cents above the same week a year ago. Gasoline is $1.066 per-gallon higher than the same week last year.
The prices of both fuels have declined in the past month along with falling oil prices, though crude has bounced higher from the mid- to high-$90s in the past two weeks to over $100 a barrel in the past four trading days.
Crude futures rose $2.11 Monday to finish the New York Mercantile Exchange trading day at $102.70 per barrel, the highest closing price since May 4, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price. This week’s figures were released Tuesday due to the Memorial Day holiday Monday.
