Diesel’s National Average Price Rises 3.5¢ to $2.90 a Gallon
Diesel’s national average retail price continued its recent string of increases, gaining 3.5 cents to $2.90 a gallon, the highest level in five weeks, the Department of Energy reported.
Despite the third straight uptick, the price is $1.117 less than a year ago, DOE said Feb. 23 after its weekly survey of filling stations.
Gasoline, meanwhile, rose 5.8 cents to $2.332 a gallon, its highest national average price this year, DOE reported. The motor fuel is $1.112 below the corresponding week last year.
Diesel’s three straight gains — which totaled almost 7 cents — are the first three in a year, when it rose 14.4 cents in the five weeks ended Feb. 24, 2014.
The price was the highest since trucking’s main fuel was $2.933 on Jan. 19, according to DOE records.
Gasoline has jumped 28.8 cents in the past four weeks and is the highest since the motor fuel was $2.403 on Dec. 22.
Oil prices, meanwhile, dipped Feb. 23 to below $50 for the first time in almost two weeks, with crude futures falling $1.36 to finish at $49.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The price slipped after U.S. drillers idled fewer oil rigs and Libya reopened a pipeline, Bloomberg News reported. It was just the fourth trading day this month that oil has closed below $50 a barrel.
Each week, DOE surveys about 400 diesel filling stations and 800 gasoline stations to compile national average fuel prices.
