The weekly average retail diesel price published by the Energy Information Administration arm of the Department of Energy rose to $2.462 a gallon Monday, a one-week increase of 2.1 cents.
The price has now moved up 9 cents in just three weeks.
It comes on the back of continuing strength in oil markets. The commodity price of ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) on Monday settled at $1.3105 a gallon, the first time it has been more than $1.30 a gallon since markets plummeted on March 6 as the pandemic took hold on the economy.
However, that move, while reflecting the strength in the market, would not have been a factor in the DOE/EIA price set Monday. But the market already had made moves higher in the prior week that would have been at least partly reflected in the retail price. The ULSD price settled Friday at $1.2863 a gallon, rising 8.21 cents per gallon from the prior Friday. The wholesale rack price for diesel found in the ULSDR.USA data series in SONAR was up 7.3 cents between last Nov. 16 and Monday.
