Diesel Jumps a Dime to Top $4 a Gallon
Diesel’s national average jumped over $4 for the first time since September 2008, gaining 10.2 cents to $4.078 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Monday.
The increase was the 18th in the past 19 weeks, in which time it has gained 91.6 cents, and the price is now $1.009 higher than the same week last year, DOE said.
Gasoline, meanwhile, leaped 10.7 cents to $3.791 per gallon, its biggest increase in five weeks and 17th gain in the past 19 weeks, in which it has risen 93.5 cents.
Diesel last topped $4 a gallon on Sept. 15, 2008, at $4.023, and Monday’s price is the highest since two weeks prior to that, when it averaged $4.121.
Gas is at its highest since that same date, when it registered $3.835 per gallon. The price is now 93.3 cents over the same week last year, according to DOE records.
The increases follow a more than $5 spike in crude oil prices last week to over $112 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported. The gains have been pegged in part to ongoing civil unrest in Libya, an OPEC oil producer.
Crude futures fell to finish to close the Nymex trading day Monday under $110 following an International Monetary Fund report that cited lower growth forecasts for the United States and Japan, Bloomberg said.
July 2008 saw record highs for diesel, gas and oil, with diesel hitting its peak $4.764 per gallon, gasoline’s topping out at $4.114, and oil’s closing-price record of $145.29 per barrel.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
