Diesel rose for the 10th straight week, jumping 7.5 cents to $3.513 a gallon, while gasoline resumed its rise, the Department of Energy said Monday.
Gas gained 3.1 cents to $3.132 a gallon — its ninth increase in 10 weeks, after a pause of less than a penny last week. It was the biggest jump in two months, since a 10.2-cent spike on Dec. 6, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
The diesel increase was the biggest since a 7.6-cent hike in early April and left trucking’s main fuel at its highest level since it hit $3.659 on Oct. 13, 2008.
Gasoline also is at its highest level since that date, when it posted a $3.151 national average, as both fuels were coming off the record highs of that summer.
Diesel has reached its highest level since October 2008 every week for the past 10 weeks and is now 74.4 cents over the same week a year ago, while gas is 48 cents higher than last year.
Crude oil hit is highest level since Oct. 2008 last Monday, closing at $92.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.
The price hike was due in part to concerns over the Suez Canal — a key choke point for Persian Gulf supplies to the West — due to political unrest in Egypt, Bloomberg said.
Oil fell $1.55 Monday to its lowest level in more than a week, closing at $87.48 a barrel on the Nymex as tensions in Egypt subsided, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
