Gas Declines 4.1¢ to $2.864; Oil Dips Below $70from
Transport Topics OnlineUpdated: 5/18/2010 8:00:00 AMDiesel took its biggest drop in 16 weeks, declining 3.3 cents to $3.094 a gallon, the Department of Energy said.
The decline was the biggest since a 5.2-cent drop on Feb. 1, turning around three months of increases in which the price had fallen just once.
The only other downturn since mid-February was a 0.7-cent dip on March 29. Monday’s decline left diesel 86.3 cents over the same week last year.
Last week’s half-cent uptick to $3.127 had put trucking’s main fuel at its highest level in more than a year and a half.
Gasoline, meanwhile, fell 4.1 cents to $2.864 a gallon, just the third decline in the past 13 weeks, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations Monday. It was the biggest decline since a 4.4-cent drop on Feb. 15.
Before Monday’s declines, gas had gained almost 30 cents in its upward run since mid-February, while diesel had risen 37.1 cents in three months.
The drops followed sharp oil-price declines this month, as crude fell from more than $86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on April 30 to finish Nymex trading Monday at $70.08, a five-month low, after briefly dipping below $70, Bloomberg reported.
