U.S. Retail Diesel Average Rises 3.4 Cents to $2.02 a Gallon

The national average retail price of diesel fuel rose 3.4 cents to $2.02 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Tuesday.

The increase followed a 0.3 cent-rise the previous week, pushing the national average price above $2 a gallon for the first time since Dec. 6.

Meanwhile, the average price of regular gasoline rose 0.7 cent $1.905 a gallon, the first increase following two declines. Gasoline was still 21.7 cents higher than the same time last year, DOE said.

Diesel has risen nearly 9 cents a gallon since DOE reported a national average price of $1.934 on Jan. 10.

The price was 42.5 cents higher than a year earlier. The trucking industry burns an estimated 650 million gallons of diesel each week, which would raise the cost to the trucking industry by about $276 million more than the same week last year.

The price of light crude oil was mostly stable last week, rising less than $1 a dollar a barrel to close at $48.35 Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

But crude prices shot up Tuesday, climbing 5.7% in one trading day to close at $51.10 a barrel, Bloomberg said, which could lead to more price increases for refined petroleum products.

he average price rose in all of DOE’s surveyed regions, the department said. The West Coast price rose 13.1 cents to $2.321, the highest increase and the highest regional price. The California price rose 6.3 cents to $2.259 a gallon.

The Rocky Mountain region also saw a large increase, rising 7.6 cents from a week earlier to $2.087 a gallon. The Gulf Coast region, which rose 2.8 cents, had the lowest regional average price of $1.943, DOE reported.

Each week, DOE surveys 350 diesel-filling stations to compile a national snapshot price.