U.S. Retail Diesel Bounces Back, Rising 3 Cents to $2.289

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fter falling a week earlier, the average price of U.S. retail diesel fuel bounced back up, rising 3 cents to $2.289 a gallon, the third-highest price on record, the Department of Energy reported Monday.

The price was just 2.7 cents short of a record high $2.316 set April 11, DOE figures showed.

Meanwhile the price of regular gasoline dropped 0.1 cent to $2.236 a gallon, DOE reported. Trilby Lundberg said in her biweekly report Monday that the average was $2.24, down about 4.5 cents over the past two weeks, which paralleled DOE's figures.

Diesel had risen to four consecutive weekly records from March 21 through April 11. The second-highest price on record was the April 4 price of $2.303.

The latest price jump followed a surge in crude prices last week, which tracked from about $50 to about $55 a barrel.

Monday’s closing price for benchmark light sweet crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange was $54.55, down 84 cents from Friday, Bloomberg reported.

DOE reported that diesel prices fell slightly in the Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions and in the state of California.

The Rocky Mountain price fell 0.8 cents, to $2.371 a gallon. California’s fell 1.2 cents to $2.570, still the nation’s highest price, while the West Coast price dropped a half-cent, to $2.549.

The Gulf Coast saw the biggest rise, of 5.1 cents, bringing its regional price to $2.231, slightly higher than the Midwest, which had the lowest regional average of $2.23, DOE said.

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