DOE Boosts Diesel, Gas Price Projections
Diesel fuel will average $2.40 a gallon this year and $2.67 next year, lower than last year’s record high level but up sharply from a previous estimate, the Department of Energy said.
Trucking’s main fuel averaged $3.80 in 2008, a year in which it peaked at a record $4.764 a gallon in mid-July, DOE said in its monthly short-term energy outlook released Tuesday.
Last month, DOE forecasted that diesel would average $2.26 this year and $2.48 in 2010 — Tuesday’s revised estimates were up 14 and 19 cents, respectively, from those levels.
Regular gasoline will average $2.33 this year, peaking in July near $2.70 a gallon, DOE said. That’s well below last year’s record $3.26 but up more than 20 cents from the $2.12 projected last month.
Gasoline will average $2.56 in 2010, up 26 cents from last month’s projection, the department said.
Crude oil prices, the main driver in retail fuel costs, will average $58.70 per barrel this year and $67.42 next year, up from last month’s estimates of $52 and $58, respectively, for 2009 and 2010.
Oil averaged $99.57 last year and set a New York Mercantile Exchange closing-price record of $145.29 per barrel last July.
In its latest weekly survey released Monday, DOE reported that the national diesel average jumped 14.6 cents — its biggest single-week increase in more than a year — to $2.498, while gasoline gained a dime to $2.624.
