Average Diesel Price Surges 2.4 Cents to $1.74
he U.S. average price for retail diesel fuel rose 2.4 cents to $1.74 per gallon, the Department of Energy said July 12, the highest price since May 31.
The spike, which followed a 1.5-cent increase the week before, left diesel only 3.1 cents below its record of $1.771 set on March 10, 2003. The trucking industry burns more than 600 million gallons of diesel each week.
The most recent increase would cost a trucker an additional $4.80 on a 200-gallon purchase at retail pumps than just a week earlier. The national average is 30.5 cents higher compared with the same week in 2003.
Last week, gasoline hit its lowest price since May 3. Trucking uses an estimated 269 million gallons of gasoline a week.
Also Monday, the price of crude oil for August delivery fell 51 cents to $39.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $40.75 earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported.
The price of oil declined on speculation surging U.S. fuel imports would help meet record demand in the world's largest gasoline market, Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile, diesel rose throughout the entire nation, DOE said, including 3 cents along the West Coast grouping of states to $2.04 and the Gulf Coast to $1.671.
The price rose 0.6 cent in the Rocky Mountain region, which was the area where diesel did not increase at least a cent, according to DOE figures.
Each week, DOE surveys 350 diesel-filling stations to compile a national snapshot price.
