Fuel Prices Resume Climb After Three-Week Drop-Off
Diesel fuel prices finished 1999 at $1.298 a gallon after a roller-coaster ride over the year. While analysts do not expect similar wild fluctuations during 2000, they intend to keep a close watch on global crude oil output.
The national average price rose 1.1 cents Dec. 27, jumping from the previous week’s level of $1.287 a gallon and reversing three consecutive weekly drops, according to the Energy Information Administration. It was the second-highest figure for 1999.
Also last week, wholesale diesel prices rose to 74.3 cents a gallon — more than twice the level at the end of 1998. The wholesale increase is the stiffest since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
 | Fuel Prices | ||
| Week of Dec. 27: | |||
| source | price | change | |
| DOE | 129.8 | +1.1 | |
| Comdata | 127.2 | +0.6 | |
| OPIS self-serve | 128.4 | +0.5 | |
| OPIS wholesale | 74.3 | +4.3 | |
| |||
Last year started with the national average continuing a decline from 1998. On Jan. 4, diesel cost 96.5 cents a gallon. On Feb. 23, it hit 95.3 cents, the rock-bottom price for the decade. Three weeks later, the figure breached the $1 mark after a 15-week run below a dollar and kept rising during the ensuing months. It reached a three-year high of $1.304 on Nov. 29.
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