Diesel Rises 0.7¢ to $2.565
The U.S. average retail price of diesel rose 0.7 cent to $2.565 a gallon as crude oil prices remained near $53 a barrel and OPEC made production cuts while U.S. output continued to rise, analysts said.
It was diesel’s first increase after four consecutive weekly declines, the Department of Energy reported Feb. 13.
Diesel now costs 58.5 cents more than it was a year ago, when the price was $1.98 a gallon, DOE said.
Also, the average diesel price was higher in all regions, except the Midwest, where it fell 0.5 cent to $2.487.
The U.S. average price for regular gasoline increased 1.4 cents to $2.307 a gallon, 58.3 cents higher than it was a year ago, DOE’s Energy Information Administration said.
Prices, though were mixed, falling in four regions and rising in five, EIA said.
Meanwhile, OPEC has delivered 92% of the output curbs it pledged, and its partners outside the group have implemented more than half their reduction, according to Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzooq, as reported by Bloomberg News. In the United States, drillers increased the rig count to the highest since October 2015, according to oil and gas drilling and production services provider Baker Hughes Inc.
“It’s a dilemma for OPEC,” Spencer Welch, director of oil markets and downstream at IHS Markit, said in a Bloomberg radio interview. “They want to help themselves, and by doing that they’re helping others as well. That’s unavoidable. OPEC is saying they can’t change what happens in the U.S., so, yes, production will increase.”
West Texas Intermediate crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed at $52.93 per barrel Feb. 13, compared with $53.01 on Feb. 6.
