In The News

Diesel price relief? Not yet, but maybe soon

The national average price for a gallon of on-highway diesel rose 2.1 cents to $3.534 for the week ending Monday, Feb. 14. Rocky Mountain and western states saw significant gains in the neighborhood of 4 cents per gallon. The good news is that industry experts are seeing signs the price will come down, at least in the short term.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the lowest average price by region for the week was in the Midwest at $3.479 per gallon. California tops the list again this week with a $3.747 average.

It wasn’t long ago – October 2010 – that the national average was just cresting the $3 mark. Could we be heading back down soon?

Two independent oil and fuel watchdogs, Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service and Glen Sokolis of the Sokolis Group told Land Line recently that the signs are there. More of their analysis will appear in the March/April issue of Land Line Magazine.

Meanwhile, the EIA, in its Short-Term Energy Outlook for February states that diesel prices will average $3.43 per gallon for this calendar year. If that is to be the case, the pump price will have to come down at some point – or EIA will have to revise its numbers.

The tracking site, ProMiles, reported a nationwide average Monday of $3.556 per gallon with no change overnight.

Here are the prices by region, according to the EIA:

U.S. – $3.534, up 2.1 cents
East Coast – $3.587, up 2.2 cents
New England – $3.749, up 3.2 cents
Central Atlantic – $3.700, up 1.8 cents
Lower Atlantic – $3.524, up 2.3 cents
Midwest – $3.479, up 0.004 cents
Gulf Coast – $3.489, up 3.4 cents
Rocky Mountain – $3.511, up 5.2 cents
West Coast – $3.671, up 4.1 cents
California – $3.747, up 4.0 cents

In other energy news, the price of a barrel of light sweet crude, the oil type most commonly associated with diesel production, was on the decline on Monday. According to the New York Mercantile Exchange, futures for March delivery were down 70 cents a barrel to $84.88 during midday trading.

www.LandLineMag.com