Diesel Gains 0.1¢ to $3.959; Oil Falls Below $100 a Barrel
Diesel fuel’s national average price rose 0.1 cent to $3.959 a gallon, its first increase in 11 weeks, the Department of Energy said Monday.
Gasoline fell for the second straight week following a one-week increase, declining 8.6 cents to $3.632 a gallon, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
Gas is now 84.4 cents higher than the same week last year and 48.2 cents below its $4.114 record set July 7. It has fallen in 11 of the past 12 weeks.
Crude oil, meanwhile, plunged more than $10 to fall below $100 a barrel, following the U.S. House of Representatives’ rejection of a $700 billion Bush administration plan to shore up financial institutions and credit markets, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures closed Monday at $96.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the biggest drop by percentage since November 2001, Bloomberg said.
Diesel had fallen steadily in the previous 10 weeks from its record high of $4.764 a gallon set July 14, according to DOE figures.
Monday’s price, which followed the department’s weekly survey, left trucking’s main fuel 91.1 cents over the same week last year.
Regionally, the prices ranged from a half-cent increase in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions to a 2-cent decline in the Rocky Mountain region.
In California, which DOE breaks out separately, the price rose 1.2 cents to $3.963 a gallon.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
