Diesel Jumps 10.6¢ to Record $3.658
The average national price of retail diesel fuel jumped 10.6 cents to a record $3.658 a gallon, following last week’s record $3.552, the Department of Energy said.
Monday’s price is 21.4 cents higher than the previous $3.444 record set before last week’s all-time high, and leaves trucking’s main fuel $1.032 higher than the same week last year, according to DOE figures.
Diesel jumped 15.6 cents last week, the biggest gain since the record 34.6-cent spike in October 2005 following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Crude oil reached a record high of $103.95 a barrel on Monday in intraday trading before falling to close the day at $102.45, Bloomberg reported. Oil set a closing-price record Thursday of $102.59 a barrel.
Gasoline, meanwhile, rose 3.2 cents to $3.162 a gallon, DOE said, about a nickel short of the $3.218 record set last May.
Heating oil futures, a proxy for diesel prices, also reached a record on the Nymex Monday, as did gasoline futures, Bloomberg said. Heating oil rose 3.2 cents to $2.839 a gallon, while gasoline touched a record $2.733.
The diesel price jumped 12.7 cents on the West Coast, to $3.736, the highest regional price.
The East Coast region’s Central Atlantic sub-region had the highest price listed overall, at $3.825, topping California — which DOE breaks out separately from but is included in the West Coast price — at $3.803 a gallon.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
