Diesel Rises 2.6¢ to $2.297; Price Is Highest for 2016
The U.S. retail diesel average rose 2.6 cents to $2.297 the highest price this year, the Department of Energy said May 16.
The rise is the 12th in 13 weeks, and the price of diesel is at the highest level since Dec. 14, when it was $2.338 a gallon.
Diesel is 60.7 cents cheaper than a year ago.
Every region posted higher prices, DOE said after its weekly survey of fueling stations. The price increased the most in the West Coast minus California, where it rose 5.7 cents a gallon. Trucking’s main fuel only rose by 0.8 cent in the Central Atlantic.
The national average price for regular gasoline rose 2.2 cents to $2.242 a gallon, DOE’s Energy Information Administration said. Gasoline is 50.2 cents cheaper than a year ago.
West Texas Intermediate for June delivery rose $1.51 to settle at $47.72 a barrel May 16 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, it’s the highest close since Nov. 3, Bloomberg News reported.
EIA predicts diesel will be $2.64 a gallon in 2017, increasing its forecast by 16 cents a gallon.
“Consumption of distillate fuel, which includes diesel fuel and heating oil, fell by 60,000 [barrels a day] (1.5%) in 2015, and it is expected to fall by an additional 100,000 b/d (2.5%) in 2016," EIA said in its monthly short-term energy outlook.
"Falling distillate consumption in 2016 is the result of relatively warm winter temperatures, reduced oil and natural-gas drilling and falling coal production, which has reduced diesel use in rail shipments of coal.”
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. expects the price of West Texas Intermediate crude to average $50 in the second half of the year, rising from $33.63 in the first quarter, because the production surplus has disappeared more quickly than expected, Bloomberg reported.
U.S. average #Diesel fuel price on 5/16/16= $2.297/gal, UP $0.026 from week ago https://t.co/UUshNmM9jX #truckers pic.twitter.com/l7fKHLR5cG — EIA (@EIAgov) May 16, 2016
