Diesel Price Rises for Fourth Week, Up 3.6¢ to $2.936; Gas Jumps 14.1¢
Diesel’s national average pump price rose for a fourth straight week, gaining 3.6 cents to $2.936 a gallon, while gasoline prices jumped more than 14 cents, the Department of Energy reported March 2.
Gasoline jumped 14.1 cents to $2.473, its highest price since mid-December and biggest increase in a year and a half.
Diesel’s upturn — the highest in its recent spate of increases — left it at its highest level since Jan. 12, when it was last over $3 a gallon.
Despite rising more than a dime in the past month, trucking’s main fuel is $1.08 less than it was a year ago, when it was just over $4 a gallon.
Gas, which has leaped almost 43 cents in five straight gains, is $1 below its level of a year ago.
The motor fuel is at its highest since it was $2.554 on Dec. 15, and this week’s increase was the biggest since it rose 14.7 cents on July 15, 2013.
Oil prices, meanwhile, dipped 17 cents March 2 to finish at $49.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg News reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 400 diesel filling stations and 800 gasoline stations to compile national average fuel prices.
