Diesel Keeps Falling, Dropping 4.2¢ to $3.656
Diesel fell 4.2 cents, its biggest decline in a year and a half, to $3.656 a gallon, while gasoline continued its free-fall, the Department of Energy reported Oct. 20.
Diesel is at its lowest level since it was $3.648 on July 2, 2012, and the decline left it 23 cents less than a year ago.
Gasoline continued to fall sharply, declining 8.7 cents to $3.12 a gallon, the third straight decline, a span in which it has plunged 23.4 cents.
Gas is 24 cents below the corresponding week last year and has fallen almost 60 cents since April. DOE’s Gulf Coast regional fell below the $3 threshold to $2.912 per gallon.
Diesel has dropped more than 26 cents since June and more than 36 cents since its 2014 high of $4.021 in March.
This week’s decline was the biggest since trucking’s main fuel fell 5.5 cents to $3.887 on April 22, 2013.
The downturns followed plunging prices, with crude futures falling last week to a more than two-year low.
Oil finished at $81.78 per barrel Oct. 15 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest level since June 2012.
Crude futures closed at $82.71 on the Nymex on Oct. 20 and have fallen almost $25 since the 2014 Nymex closing-price high of $107.26 per barrel in late June.
Each week, DOE surveys about 400 diesel filling stations and 800 gasoline stations to compile national average prices.
