Diesel Resumes Decline After One-Week Increase
Diesel’s national average pump price resumed its downward trend Nov. 17 after last week’s increase, slipping 1.6 cents to $3.661 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported.
Diesel rose 5.4 cents last week to $3.677, led by a 16-cent jump in DOE’s Midwest region. That 15-state region’s price ticked down 0.2 cent this week, to $3.786.
Prior to the short-lived increase, trucking’s main fuel had not risen in four months, falling 30 cents from June to $3.623 in early November, the lowest price since February 2011.
Gasoline, meanwhile, fell 4.7 cents to $2.894 a gallon, the seventh straight decline and 17th in the past 20 weeks.
The motor fuel, which is at its lowest level in four years, has plunged 80 cents since April.
Oil prices remained near a four-year low Nov. 17, closing at $75.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg News reported.
Crude futures closed at $74.21 a barrel Nov. 13, which was the lowest closing price since Sept. 21, 2010, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 400 diesel filling stations and 800 gasoline stations to compile national average prices.
