Diesel Price Jumps 6 Cents to $2.551 in Fourth Straight Gain

Gasoline Spikes 8.7 Cents to $2.383
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Retail diesel fuel’s national average price rose for a fourth straight week, jumping 6 cents to $2.551 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Monday.Self-serve regular gasoline, meanwhile, soared 8.7 cents to $2.383 from last week, DOE said.Gasoline prices gained 12.8 cents over the past two weeks, according to analyst Trilby Lundberg's most recent survey of filling stations released Sunday. (Click here for previous coverage.)The diesel price was 8 cents higher than the same week last year, while gas was 12.9 cents higher than a year ago, according to DOE figures.The diesel increase followed gains of 1.5 cents last week, 4.1 cents two weeks ago and 2.2 cents in the first week of February. Prior to that, diesel had declined more than 20 cents over seven straight drops.Crude oil prices have spiked higher this month, and topped $60 a barrel for the first time this year last week. On Monday, light sweet crude oil futures rose 25 cents to close at $61.39, the highest since Dec. 22, Bloomberg reported.Diesel prices rose in all five U.S. regions, led by 7.9-cent jumps in both the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, to $2.523 and $2.497, respectively.The West Coast average gained just 0.6 cent to $2.79, while California’s price, which DOE breaks out separately, gained just a penny, to $2.911.Those increases, while much lower than in previous weeks for those areas, pushed those prices to the highest nationwide.Each week DOE surveys 350 filling stations nationwide to get a national snapshot average price.