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Diesel prices above $2.20 a gallon
By Sean Kelley
Diesel prices climbed above $2.20 a gallon for the first time Oct. 25, rising 3.2 cents to a national average retail price of $2.212.
Prices around the country rose on fears of a cold winter and a shortage of distillate fuel, which goes to heat homes as well as power big rigs. The U.S. Department of Energy reported last week that distillate fuel inventories, which include both diesel fuel and heating oil, have declined for five weeks in a row. “Heating oil inventories alone have dropped in four out of the last five weeks,” said analysts with the DOE’s Energy Information Administration.
“Should this trend continue, this would imply an earlier pre-winter peak than normally seen and mean that inventories appear increasingly likely to enter the peak winter season at low levels,” they said. If heating oil stocks, which are low due primarily to weather-related slowdowns in production, are not replenished in time, diesel prices could go significantly higher, the analyst warned.
They are already at historical highs when not adjusted for inflation. The national average is 71.7 cents higher than the same week last year. In California, truckers are paying $2.43 a gallon, 30 cents more than drivers in the Gulf Coast region.
Still, prices are hitting truckers hard everywhere. For the week, prices rose the most in the Rocky Mountain region, climbing 5.9 cents to $2.278. More modest increases were absorbed by truckers in the Midwest and Northeast, where diesel prices rose 2.4 and 3.9 cents, respectfully.
Record high oil prices are also having an effect on diesel prices.
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