Fuel Price Dips; Crude Goes Back Up
The national average price of diesel fuel dipped to $1.307 on Jan. 10, the first drop in three weeks, tracking a drop in crude oil prices to $24.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
However, the price of crude bounced back later in the week, according to the Bloomberg News Service.
Oil prices — and the cost of diesel — rose drastically through the end of 1999 after the cartel announced in March that it would reduce production 6% below 1998 levels in an effort to shrink worldwide supply. The steady rise of prices forced a number of truckload and less-than-truckload companies to implement fuel surcharges.
 | Fuel Prices | ||
| Week of Jan. 10: | |||
| source | price | change | |
| DOE | 130.7 | -0.2 | |
| Comdata | 128.9 | +0.5 | |
| OPIS self-serve | 130.2 | +0.8 | |
| OPIS wholesale | 75.1 | -0.7 | |
| |||
Diego Saltes, an analyst with the Economics and Statistical Analysis Department of American Trucking Associations, said the “bearish” market was the result of increases in inventory levels, as of Jan. 7, along with rumors that compliance with production cuts ordered by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries might be slipping.
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