Diesel to Remain Over $4 a Gallon, DOE Says
Diesel will remain over $4 a gallon this summer, the Department of Energy said in its monthly short-term energy outlook released Tuesday.
Trucking’s main fuel will average $3.98 this year, DOE said — about $1 over last year’s $2.99 average and 18 cents higher than its forecast last month.
The higher price forecast — which follows a 38-cent jump in last month’s outlook — is pegged to higher crude oil prices, DOE said.
Trucking’s main fuel is already close to the projected summer level, with diesel averaging $4.078 nationwide, according to DOE’s most recent weekly filling-station survey released Monday, marking the first time it averaged $4 nationwide since September 2008.
Regular-grade gasoline will average $3.70 this year, DOE said in boosting its price outlook by 51 cents — 92 cents over last year’s $2.78 average and 41 cents higher than last month’s forecast.
The price of regular gas during this year’s “driving season” from April through September will be more than $1 over last summer, rising to $3.86 a gallon, from $2.76 last year.
Gasoline averaged $3.791 in DOE’s most recent weekly survey, with both diesel and gas jumping more than a dime from last week. Both fuels have soared close to $1 since Thanksgiving.
The price gains are being led by higher crude oil prices, which have skyrocketed to more than $112 a barrel this month from $85 in mid-February.
DOE said crude will average $106 a barrel this year and rise to $114 in 2012 — up $5 and $9, respectively, from last month’s outlook.
Crude plunged more than $3 Tuesday to near $106 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on reports of slower economic growth, Bloomberg reported.
