Diesel Rises 5.6¢ to $2.445 a Gallon as Oil Hits 12-Month High
The U.S. average retail price of diesel jumped 5.6 cents to $2.445 a gallon, according to the Department of Energy, as oil prices hit a 12-month high.
Diesel is 11.1 cents cheaper than it was a year ago, when the price was $2.556, DOE said after its Oct. 10 survey of fueling stations.
Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed Oct. 10 at $51.35 per barrel. That was the highest price in the past 12 months.
Diesel rose in all regions of the country, the Energy Information Agency said.
But there is more to be concerned with regarding diesel than its pricing, one supplier of additives said.
“The switch to ultra-low sulfur diesel and the associated fuel blends have brought a host of problems to diesel fuel users and distributors,” Steve Muth, chief chemist for Penray Inc. told Transport Topics.
“These include instability from black fuel or asphaltenes, filter plugging, equipment corrosion and cold weather operability problems. Add in contaminants such as water, dust and dirt particles and bacteria or other microbes, and you are guaranteed a high incidence of costly repairs and unscheduled downtime," Muth said.
The preventative measure is the use of appropriate chemical additives “to replace those lost in the hydrogenation process,” he said.
The U.S. regular gasoline average price rose 2.7 cents to $2.272 a gallon, 6.5 cents cheaper than a year ago, EIA reported. However, gasoline prices in the four East Coast regions were up compared with a year earlier.
Regional gasoline prices, compared with a week earlier, rose everywhere but on the West Coast, which was lower by 0.04 cent.
Meanwhile, OPEC has agreed to cut its supply of oil to between 32.5 million barrels a day and 33 million, with details to be set by the end of November, according to the International Energy Agency.
World oil output of 97.2 million barrels a day was up 200,000 barrels from last year due to strong OPEC growth, IEA said. Non-OPEC supply is forecast to drop by 900,000 barrels a day in 2016 before rebounding by 0.4 million barrels a day in 2017, it said.
Global oil supply rose by 600,000 barrels per day in September, according to IEA’s latest report.
