Diesel Price to Drop, DOE Says
Retail diesel prices for 2007 will peak this month at $2.92 a gallon before gradually declining every month through the end of the year, the Department of Energy said.
But gasoline prices this summer will be 5% higher than DOE’s previous forecast due to refinery shutdowns and higher global demand, DOE said in its monthly short-term energy forecast released Tuesday.
Gasoline will average $2.95 from April through September, up from a $2.81 per-gallon estimate last month, the department said. Gas prices last summer averaged $2.84.
Diesel’s pump price averaged $2.62 through the first four months of this year, and April’s average was $2.834, DOE figures showed.
The average diesel pump price will drop about a penny a month through September, then fall by 4 cents in both October and November, before ending the year with about a 2-cent decline in December, to $2.78.
The retail price has fallen in the past three weeks in the department’s weekly price survey, with Monday’s price dipping 1.9 cents to $2.792.
