Diesel Rises for 15th Straight Week, Gaining 3.7¢ to $3.908 a Gallon
Diesel rose for the 15th straight week, increasing 3.7 cents to a national average of $3.908 a gallon, while gasoline gained almost a nickel, the Department of Energy said Monday.
Gasoline rose 4.7 cents to $3.567 a gallon, its 14th increase in 15 weeks, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
The diesel increase was slower than the double-digit gains of the past two weeks and pushed diesel toward the $4 a gallon threshold, which it has surpassed in some areas.
Trucking’s main fuel is now 98.4 cents higher than the same week a year ago, while gas is 77.9 cents more expensive than the same week last year.
Diesel is at its highest since it was $3.958 a gallon on Sept. 29, 2008, when it was in decline from the record $4.764 per gallon, set in July 2008.
The current average price is more than $4 in DOE’s West Coast region and in its California sub-region, and New England and the Central Atlantic, sub-regions of the East Coast region.
Diesel has gained almost 75 cents since Thanksgiving and jumped almost 30 cents over the past two weeks as crude oil prices soared over $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008 on concerns over Middle East political turmoil.
Oil prices fell for four straight days, dipping below $100 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange for the first time in two weeks, following Japan’s huge earthquake on Friday.
Crude futures later rose 3 cents to finish the trading day at $101.19 a barrel, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
