Diesel Rises 0.5¢ to $2.577
The U.S. average retail price of diesel rose 0.5 cent to $2.577 a gallon, diesel’s third increase after four consecutive weekly declines, the Department of Energy reported Feb. 27.
Diesel now costs 58.8 cents more than it was a year ago, DOE said.
The average diesel price declined in the California region by 0.4 cent to $2.962. The price of diesel was unchanged in the New England region at $2.658 and unchanged in the Gulf Coast region at $2.433.
Trucking’s main fuel rose in all other regions.
The U.S. average price for regular gasoline rose 1.2 cent to $2.314 a gallon, DOE’s Energy Information Administration said.
U.S. crude inventories climbed to 518.7 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 17, the highest level in weekly data going back to 1982, according to the Energy Information Administration. Production rose to 9 million barrels a day in the period, the highest since April, Bloomberg News reported.
As stockpiles mount, producers are increasingly seeking protection against a price reversal. Their net-short position keeps getting closer to the record bearish stance reached in April of last year, according to Bloomberg.
"I’m looking for prices to rise this year, but not above $60, and the reason for the ceiling is the tremendous resilience of U.S. shale," Tamar Essner, a New York-based energy analyst at Nasdaq Inc., told Bloomberg. "The market is very one-sided right now, which makes me nervous because that often precedes a reversal."
