Last week diesel prices took an almost 7-cents-a-gallon leap and this Monday they increased nearly 4 cents, 3.8 cents to be exact. The national on-highway average as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) was $3.277.
The EIA last week said total liquid fuels inventories are returning to five-year average levels and that the global oil glut is over — at least for now.
So, prices should continue to climb for a while although the EIA says the oil surplus will return, just not as much as previously.
However, today’s diesel prices are up 73.8 cents over what they were at this time last year and all 10 of EIA’s diesel reporting regions are showing prices above the $3-a-gallon mark, with California’s prices up 4.4 cents a gallon to $3.973, and the West Coast sector up 3.4 cents a gallon to $3.765.
The Gulf Coast region usually has the cheapest diesel and it still does at $3.055, having hit above $3 a gallon last week and today going up 4.3 cents more.
Meanwhile, benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 1.3 percent to $72.24 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oil, added 0.9 percent to $79.22 per barrel in London, The Associated Press reported.
Wholesale gasoline added 1 percent to $2.26 a gallon and heating oil rose 0.4 percent to $2.27 a gallon while natural gas fell 1.3 percent to $2.81 per 1,000 cubic feet.
For diesel prices by region click here.
Dorothy Cox is former assistant editor – now retired – of The Trucker, and a 20-plus-year trucking journalism veteran. She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a master’s degree in divinity. Cox has been in journalism since 1972. She has won awards for her writing in both mainstream and trucking journalism.
