Diesel prices increase for third straight week, reports EIA

The average price per gallon of diesel gasoline headed up for the third straight week, according to data issued this week by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Increasing 3.5 cents to $2.90 per gallon, this increase follows 3 cent and 0.4 cent gains over the previous two weeks for a total 6.9 cent increase over that three-week period.

And this week’s price is the highest in five weeks since the week of January 19, when it was $2.933 per gallon. This three-week stretch of increases marks the longest stretch of weekly increases, going back to the five-week period ending February 24, 2014, when prices headed up a cumulative 14.4 cents.  

On an annual basis, the EIA said that prices are down $1.17 cents. And in its recently-issued Short Term Energy Outlook, the EIA pegged the average price for diesel prices in 2015 at $2.83 and $3.24 in 2016, with WTI crude oil at $55.02 per barrel in 2015 and $71.00 in 2016.

The average price per barrel of oil rose 23 cents to $46.49 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to a MarketWatch report.