Diesel Gains a Half-Cent to $4.147; Gas Gains a Nickel to $3.918
Diesel rose 0.5 cents to $4.147 a gallon, its highest price since the record-setting summer of 2008, while gasoline rose more than a nickel, the Department of Energy said.
Gasoline gained 5.1 cents to $3.918 a gallon, its ninth straight increase and the 13th in the past 14 weeks, DOE said Monday following its weekly survey of filling stations. It marked the highest price since last May, when it hit $3.96 a gallon.
The diesel increase — the ninth straight and 11th in 12 weeks — leaves diesel 21.5 cents higher than the same week last year, while gas is 32.2 cents over last year, DOE figures showed.
The diesel uptick was the smallest in that period and the smallest single-week gain since Jan. 10, 2011, when diesel rose 0.2 cent.
Diesel has risen a cumulative 36.4 cents in the past three months, with its only decline a 0.6-cent downturn in late January.
Gasoline has risen 68.9 cents in the since late last year, with its only decline a 0.2-cent slip on Jan. 23.
Diesel topped out at $4.124 last May, which was then the highest price since 2008. Monday’s price is the highest since trucking’s main fuel registered $4.207 on Aug. 18, 2008.
Diesel’s record high weekly price was $4.764 a gallon, set on July 14, 2008, while gasoline’s was $4.114, set a week earlier than that.
Oil has held between about $105 and $108 per barrel in the past month. Crude futures rose 16 cents Monday to finish the New York Mercantile Exchange trading day at $107.03 per barrel, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
