Diesel Price Falls for 4th Straight Week

The price of diesel fuel dropped 1.1 cents last week to reach, at $1.275 per gallon, the lowest level since March 18, according to a report by the Department of Energy released Monday.

It was the fourth straight week of decline and the cumulative drop has shaved $10.20 off the price of a fill-up for a long-haul trucker’s two 150-gallon tanks.

Gasoline, the other major fuel for the trucking industry, saw its retail price rise 0.3 cent per gallon last week to $1.378, the DOE said.

The Department of Energy's historical data showed the March 18 price for diesel fuel was $1.251 per gallon.

Prices dropped in all but two of the geographic regions surveyed by DOE’s Energy Information Administration. They were the West Coast, where the price rose 0.5 cent, and its sub-region of California, where the price went up 1.5 cents.

The oil market currently displays a number of factors that have forced prices up in the past, such as continuing production cutbacks instituted by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, an accidental shutdown of an Oklahoma refinery, a Norwegian strike threat and an unexpected drop in U.S. inventories of crude oil.

However, OPEC analysts, as well as those on the London and U.S. exchanges, have said demand is too soft to push the price of oil up.

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