Diesel Prices Jump, Led By 5-cent California Increase

The national average price of diesel fuel bounced to $1.068 per gallon, rising nine-tenths of a cent from the previous week’s average of $1.059 and reversing a four-week slide. The increase was driven in large measure by a 5-cents-a-gallon increase in California.

The national average price had been falling since May 10, when the price stood at $1.083. On June 7, the price of $1.059 was six-tenths of a cent below the previous week, according to the Department of Energy.

New England was the only one of nine regions to record a drop in the price of diesel, going from $1.11 to $1.108. The smallest increases came in the Rocky Mountain and Central Atlantic regions — up one-tenth of a cent.

Drivers in the West Coast region saw an overall jump of 3.4 cents — from $1.245 to $1.279, according to the DOE.

The diesel fuel price has been near or above the $1.06-a-gallon threshold for imposing fuel surcharges that are written into many truckload contracts since March 29, five weeks after it reached a historic low of 95.3 cents. However, no carrier has reported imposing the surcharges.

Most trucking companies on the West Coast had not yet seen the reported price in effect.

June Cunningham of Cherokee Freight Lines in Stockton, Calif., said her business likely would not receive fuel bills from the current week for nearly another week.

A spokeswoman for KVS Trucking in Bakersfield, Calif., said she noted the new prices and hoped they would prove to be temporary.

Bob Costello, director of economics and statistical analysis at American Trucking Associations, said the reasons behind the increase were varied, citing a refinery explosion in California, domestic turmoil near oil fields in Nigeria, a threatened oil worker strike in Venezuela and production cuts by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

However, Costello said “one week doesn’t make a trend.”

“We should watch the wholesale price,” he said. “If increases continue there, they have to affect retail prices sooner or later.”

holesale diesel prices rose from 46.8 to 48.1 cents, according to the Oil Price Information Service.