Diesel average rises 8.5-cents, for the week of October 18, reports EIA

Another week brought another steep increase, for the average price per gallon of diesel gasoline, according to data issued this week by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

Fort the week of October 18, the national diesel average increased 8.5-cents, to $3.671 per gallon, which topped last week’s $3.586 per gallon average as the highest weekly level going back to the week of December 1, 2014, when it came in at $3.605 per gallon. For the week of October 11, the national diesel average increased 10.9-cents, which represented the highest single increase, since September 4, 2017, which saw a 15.3-cent increase, due to Hurricane Harvey.  

That was preceded by a 7.1-cent increase, to $3.477 per gallon, for the week of October 4, which, at the time, marked its highest weekly increase since the week of March 8, when it also headed up 7.1 cents.

This week’s national diesel average is up $1.283 compared to the same week a year ago.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil is currently trading at $83.27 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The gains in gas and oil prices, in recent weeks, which a recent New York Times report noted have seen prices head up by about a quarter in the last month, are related to what the report called a looming tight market, as well as concerns about the Delta variant of the coronavirus slowing the global economic recovery.