Diesel Price Rises 1.2 Cents a Gallon to $1.492

The national average price of diesel fuel rose 1.2 cents a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday, to $1.492.

Diesel is the primary fuel for the trucking industry, and its cost is a major expense for trucking companies to cover.

The price of the other major fuel for trucking, gasoline, rose 1.4 cents to $1.473 a gallon.

The increase in diesel prices was the second in as many weeks, the DOE’s Energy Information Administration said. On Jan. 21, the EIA had reported a 0.2-cent increase in the cost of diesel fuel.

The price of diesel fuel rose about a cent in each of the geographic regions that the EIA uses to compare diesel prices nationwide, the agency said. Price increases ranged from about 0.9 cent a gallon in the Gulf Coast states and the Rocky Mountain region to a 1.6-cent per gallon jump in New England.

The price jumped 2.7 cents a gallon in California, one of the largest states in the union, to $1.598.

Continued tensions in the oil-rich Middle East and a prolonged labor dispute in Venezuela, a major exporter of petroleum to the United States have held oil and fuel prices high in recent weeks.

Each week the EIA surveys 350 filling stations around the country to compile a snapshot of diesel prices nationwide.