Diesel Gains 3.7 Cents to $2.654; Gas Jumps 9.5 Cents to $2.683
he average national retail price of diesel fuel continued its upward trend, rising 3.7 cents to $2.654 a gallon, while gasoline continued to spike, the Department of Energy said Monday.
Gasoline's average price leapfrogged diesel's, with a 9.5-cent increase to $2.683 a gallon, DOE said following its weekly filling-stations survey.
It was the first time since Sept. 26 that gasoline has been higher than diesel, according to DOE figures.
Gasoline is at its highest level since a $2.725 average on Oct. 17, when it too was falling from highs reached following the two hurricanes. Gas prices have spiked 35.2 cents in the past five weeks.
Meanwhile, crude oil futures continued to rise Monday, closing at $68.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Sept. 1, Bloomberg reported. (Click here for related story.)
Oil's all-time closing record was $69.81 a barrel, set last Aug. 30 — it had hit an intraday and overall record high of $70.85 that same day, just one day following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall near New Orleans.
Retail diesel is now 33.8 cents higher than this time last year, 97.5 cents over the price two years ago and $1.331 higher than four years ago — about double the price — according to DOE data.
Gasoline is 40.3 cents higher than a year ago and 89.7 cents over the same week two years ago.
Diesel jumped 5.9 cents in the West Coast region to $2.812, the highest regional average, and 6.9 cents in California, to $2.881, which DOE breaks out separately from its five regional prices.
The price increased in all four of the other regions, gaining 5.1 cents in the Rocky Mountains to $2.68, 3.7 cents in the East Coast to $2.676, 3.6 cents in the Midwest to $2.614 and 2.2 cents in the Gulf Coast region to $2.601.
Each week, DOE surveys 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
