Diesel nudges down scant 0.3 cents, EIA reports

Except for the Gulf Coast region, up 0.2 cents this week over last week, most reporting areas of EIA showed ever-so-slight improvements.

The Trucker News Services

6/30/2008

Diesel prices edged down a little more today, with the national retail on-highway average at $4.645, down a scant 0.3 cents from last week’s price of $4.648, the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported.

Except for the Gulf Coast region, up 0.2 cents this week over last week, most reporting areas of EIA showed ever-so-slight improvements.

The Rocky Mountain area showed on-highway diesel down 1.4 cents, from $4.652 last week (June 23) to $4.638 reported today, while truckers filling up in the New England region saw a 1.1 cent drop to $4.822, down from $4.833 reported on June 23.

The Central Atlantic area experienced a modest decrease of 0.9 cents, down to $4.822 compared with $4.831 last week.

The East Coast reported that the price of on-highway diesel was down 0.7 cents to $4.704, compared with $4.711 the week before.

In the West Coast region (excluding California, which is its own reporting area), the price only edged down 0.1 cent.

Every Monday (unless it’s a federal holiday), the retail on-highway diesel prices are collected by telephone and fax from a sample of approximately 350 retail diesel outlets, including truck stops and service stations. The data represent the price of ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) which contains less than 15 parts-per-million sulfur and low sulfur diesel (LSD) which contains between 15 and 500 parts-per-million sulfur.

EPA requires that all on-highway diesel sold be ULSD by December 1, 2010 (it was Sept. 1, 2006, in California).

The prices reported in the survey are subjected to automated edit checks during data collection and data processing. Data flagged by the edits are verified with the respondent, according to EPA.

Petroleum diesel is a “distillate” refined from crude oil. There are various grades or types of distillates, but No. 2 distillate is the primary source for the motor diesel fuel consumed in the U.S. It is also used as a fuel oil for heating buildings and by industry.