The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the price for U.S. on-highway diesel fuel fell eight-tenths of a penny to $3.871 per gallon, the second consecutive increase. (The EIA is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy.) The national average price is 1.9% or 7.4 cents lower than at this time last year.
The EIA also reported that the price of regular grade gasoline fell three-tenths of a cent again to $3.239 per gallon. The price of gasoline is 0.5% or 1.5 cents less expensive than a year ago.
The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil settled at $96.60 per barrel on Friday, $1.05 below a week earlier. Compared with a year earlier, the price of WTI was up 11.4%.
Last week, the EIA said that U.S. commercial crude oil stockpiles fell 2.7% to 375.2 million barrels during the week of December 6, 2013. Compared with a year ago, crude oil inventories increased 0.7%. Year-to-date, crude oil stocks were 3.4% higher than at the same time last year.
Meanwhile, total distillate stocks were up 4% from last week at 113.5 million barrels, which was just above the levels at the same time in 2012. Demand for distillates fell 5% from the previous week but rose 3.8% from the same time last year. Nationwide, refineries were operating at 92.6% of capacity.
All of this news is positive for your fuel management program. Lower prices mean a more stable budget. However, diesel fuel and gas prices moving up and down do not really provide you with solid fuel management solutions just a wait and hope method. For more help, call 267-482-6155
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