Diesel’s Decline Slows; Fuel Falls 4.9¢ to $2.615
Diesel fuel’s national average price continued its downward trend but slowed its rate of decline, falling 4.9 cents to $2.615 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Monday.
The downturn left trucking’s main fuel 80.1 cents below the same week last year, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
The price is almost $2.15 below its record $4.764 set in mid-July, and diesel is at its lowest level since it was $2.551 a gallon on Feb. 26, 2007.
Gasoline continued to fall, dropping 8.1 cents to $1.811 a gallon, the lowest price since Jan. 10, 2005, when it was $1.793.
Gas has fallen $2.303 since its $4.114 record set on July 7.
Crude oil, meanwhile, fell to its lowest level in more than three years Monday, to below $50 a barrel, after OPEC ministers deferred setting production cuts, Bloomberg reported.
Oil fell $5.15, or almost 10%, to close at $49.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since May 23, 2005, and almost $100 below the $145.29 record set July 3.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
