Diesel Slips 0.3¢ to $2.423
The U.S. average retail diesel price slipped 0.3 cent to $2.423, the Department of Energy said as the price of crude oil continued to wobble below $50 a barrel.
Trucking’s main fuel remained 40.9 cents cheaper than a year ago, when the price was $2.832.
Meanwhile, the average retail price of gasoline fell more sharply, dropping 3.8 cents to $2.291.
Diesel prices were unchanged in the Central Atlantic and Midwest regions, DOE said after its July 4 survey of fueling stations.
Diesel rose 0.7 cent per gallon to $2.436 in the Rocky Mountain section.
It was down elsewhere, falling by less than 1 cent, respectively, in each of the remaining regions.
Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed July 5 at $46.60, down from $48.99 on July 1.
James Koller, senior commodity analyst and manager for Navistar International Corp., told Transport Topics that global demand for fuel affects prices truckers pay for diesel.
“In this day and age, diesel fuel is truly a global commodity,” Koller said. “So American truckers are competing more on global scale for that diesel.”
He said that when more sulfur content was in the diesel fuel used here, it couldn’t be burned in Europe, so “it was more or less stranded here in the states,” Koller said.
But in 2007, the United States changed its specification to ultra-low-sulfur diesel and to 15 parts per million of sulfur from 500 ppm to support new diesel engine pollution-control technology designed to cut emission levels, he said, and that shift aligned it more with the world standard for diesel fuel, too.
Discussing the current market, he said, “I think, overall, there is a large supply of product, even with some flex-fuel plants burning [No. 2] heating oil [also considered a distillate fuel like diesel] to make electricity for air conditioning. That has not been a big soak [on supply], as the weather this summer has been pretty moderate.”
“I have to expect after we get over this midsummer hump, we’ll see pricing pull back a little,” Koller added.
U.S. average #Diesel fuel price on 7/04/16= $2.423/gal, DOWN $0.003 from week ago https://t.co/MEKeQkFIVd #truckers pic.twitter.com/c5nSPwzPPz — EIA (@EIAgov) July 5, 2016
