DOE Lowers Diesel-Price Forecast for 2015
The Department of Energy lowered its 2015 forecast for U.S. retail diesel prices by 2 cents to $2.83 a gallon but boosted its crude-oil price forecast slightly.
Diesel will slide into the $2.70s from March through August before rising, DOE’s Energy Information Administration said in its monthly short-term energy outlook released Feb. 10.
Trucking’s main fuel, which averaged $3.83 per gallon last year, will average $3.23 in 2016, EIA said, lowering last month’s outlook by 2 cents.
Gasoline averaged $2.12 a gallon in January, the lowest for a month since April 2009, EIA reported.
The motor fuel — which averaged $3.36 last year — will average $2.33 this year and $2.73 in 2016, virtually unchanged from last month’s outlook.
Diesel this week took its first increase since November — and just the second since June — edging up 0.4 cent to $3.835.
Gasoline jumped 12.3 cents to $2.19, the biggest increase in a year and a half, DOE said in its regular weekly price survey released Feb. 9.
Crude oil will average just over $55 a barrel this year, up from last month’s $54.58 projected price, the outlook said.
“The amount of oil inventories held in industrialized countries is expected to be the highest on record at the end of this year because of global oil production growing at a stronger pace than fuel demand,” EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski said.
“The high oil inventories will be a key contributor to low petroleum prices,” he said in a statement.
