Updated:
6/14/2011 10:45:00 AM
Diesel Increase is First in Six Weeks
Diesel’s national average rose 1.4 cents to $3.954 a gallon, its first increase in six weeks, while gasoline dropped 6.8 cents to $3.713, the Department of Energy said Monday.
The diesel gain — just the second in the past two months — left trucking’s main fuel $1.026 higher than the same week a year ago, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
Gasoline’s decline was its fifth straight, in which time it has fallen just over 25 cents, according to DOE records. Gas is now $1.012 higher than the same week last year.
Diesel’s five downturns through last week from the more than two-and-a-half-year high of $4.124 on May 2 totaled 18.4 cents.
Prior to that, the price had been steadily increasing almost every week since Thanksgiving, rising close to $1 in that five-month period. Gasoline also rose steadily from late November through early May.
Oil fell almost $2 Monday, closing at $97.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.
Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
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